Present Day Chrono Crusade
by asdf123150
Summary: The title says it all - Chrono Crusade set in a slightly modern time. Still lots of Rosette screwing things up and stuff like that, so no worries. The series belongs to Daisuke Moriyama. I make no claims to owning it.
1. Chapter 1

"Hey! Rosette!"

"Come _on, _Joshua! They'll catch us!"

The two twelve-year-old children both ran harder when the distant sound of sirens reached their ears. They ran and ran for several blocks, until at last, they collapsed against an abandoned building.

"Phew! Almost thought that we wouldn't make it!" the girl – Rosette – panted as she leaned against the wall.

"Joshua. You okay?"

He was sitting on the ground, coughing into one hand. Rosette leaned down beside him.

"Hey. Joshua. You all right?"

His coughing subsided and he looked up to flash her a grin.

"I'm fine, Rosette! But, honestly – did we _have _to run away from the orphanage?"

Rosette pouted. "Of course! That stupid church dude probably wants to take you and do weird stuff to you…" She shuddered as her overactive imagination took over. "They'll probably brainwash you so that you obey their every order, and turn you into a killing machine… Or they'll perform weird examinations that will probably involve ripping you open and taking your organs – or they're planning to-"

Joshua sighed loudly, interrupting her thoughts. "Rosette, you've been reading too many of my sci-fi novels."

Rosette _hmph_ed. "They might actually do it, you know! Just 'cause it's in a book doesn't mean it can't happen in real life! I've got to protect you! I'm your big sis, after all!"

They really did look like siblings. They both had the same crystal-clear blue eyes, pale skin, small nose and blonde hair – although Rosette's hair was more of a honey-gold, whereas Joshua's was more white-blond.

"Still… I'm tired. And hungry. What're you going to do about that?"

Rosette's stomach grumbled loudly just as she opened her mouth to respond. There was a long silence, and then they both burst into laughter.

"That's right," Rosette said, wiping tears away from her eyes. "We missed lunch, didn't we? And it's just about dinnertime now… Fine, then. We'll go back – the minister's bound to have left by now."

She pulled her brother to her feet, and they set off.

-0-

"Uh… Rosette…"

"What _is _it?" she snapped as she looked around, trying to figure out which way to go.

"Didn't we pass this building just a few minutes ago?"

She leaned back her head and peered up. "No way – all these buildings are just really similar, that's all. Now, come on! I'm pretty sure we came from here…"

Five minutes later:

"Rosette. It's the building. We've passed it _twice _by now."

She gulped as she stared up at it. When she looked down, she could see faint footprints in the dirt. "Uh. Well… I just made a wrong turn, that's all!"

Joshua's voice was small as he said, "Come on, Rosette. Admit it. We're lost."

The twins jumped as they heard a thunderclap in the distance.

"R-R-Rosette! Was that…"

"Y-Y-Yes, I-I think it w-was."

There was an enormous flash of light, followed by another bang. The two siblings clung to each other for dear life.

"_Eeeeek!_"

Of course, they both remembered the last time they'd been in a thunderstorm. Let's make a long story short: Forest. Hiking. Lost. Thunderstorm. Tree. Lightning bolt.

I'm sure you can fill in the blanks.

"C-C-C-Come on, R-Rosette! L-L-Let's get out of here!"

"W-Wait! I-I-It's too dangerous out here! L-Let's go into that building!"

They both dashed for the building that they'd passed two or three times during their walk. Joshua ran into the building, slightly ahead of his sister, and stumbled on an unseen step. He managed to regain his balance, then turned around to call, "Watch out, Rosette! There's a-"

Too late. With a high-pitched shriek, Rosette tripped over the step and crashed to the ground.

"Rosette!"

She was wincing as he ran to her side. "Ow ow ow ow ow…"

"Rosette! What-" He winced as he saw her knee and her hands. "Ooh, that looks _nasty._"

"It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!" she wailed. "I'm gonna diiiiiiiieeee!"

Joshua winced and held his hands over his ears. It was a good thing that his sister seldom wailed – it was loud enough to make him feel like elephants were stampeding all over his head.

"Rosette! It's fine! I'll heal it!"

He took a hand off one of his ears, wincing as her yells hit his eardrums full-blast, and held it over her blood-red palms and knee. Then…

A soft glow came out of his palm, and grew until it enveloped the two of them. Rosette quieted and stopped her wailing as the light did its trick.

When it at last vanished, Rosette's hands and knees looked brand-new – not a bit of red on them. Not even scars.

"Wow, Joshua," she exclaimed as she examined her hands. "Thanks!"

Joshua smiled sadly. "Glad to help, Rosette. I just wish I could heal my own injuries, too."

Rosette frowned and stood up, making sure to brush all the dirt off her dress. "Don't be ridiculous, Joshua! What's with the long face you're pulling?"

She reached out and grabbed two handfuls of his cheeks.

"Hey! Rosette! Ouch! That hurts!"

"Idiot!" she said, ignoring his exclamations of pain. "You've got the ability to heal others – be happy for it! And don't worry – there are plenty of doctors in the world who can heal you!" She released him and flashed a grin. "Big sister Rosette's better than any doctor in the world, anyway!"

Joshua smiled as he rubbed his aching cheeks. "If you say so, Rosette. But-"

Thunder crashed again and Joshua forgot what he was about to say as the two of them began to run further into the building for cover.

-0-

"Cool!" Rosette breathed as she took in all the sights around her. "This place must've been a museum, or a-a hotel! Or something!"

"Yeah," Joshua murmured as he surveyed all the doors around them. "I bet that this place is full of cool stuff!"

Rosette peered down a hallway and gasped in awe. "Joshua! Look – _look _at that door! It's enormous!" She dashed towards it and stared up at it wonderingly. "It's beautiful!"

"And…impossible to open," Joshua added as he came up to her side. "What's this writing on it?"

"Huh?" Rosette leaned down to look. "Writing?"

"Yeah…it says something like, 'Here rest priestess Magda peace' or something… It's too dusty. I'll just-"

His hand brushed the door and there was a sudden flash of blue light. Joshua fell back and Rosette gave a cry. "Joshua! Are you all right?"

"Yeah," he said, wincing. "But – look, I think the doors are opening!"

He was right. Right before the twins' astonished eyes, the doors began to slowly creak and groan, and, as though someone were pushing them open, they revealed the room beyond.

"Is this…a grave?"

Rosette shivered and took a step back. Something about dead things just freaked her out. She could never understand it, but fear was fear - who cared about the cause? "Is it? Joshua, can you go check?"

He sighed but obliged. "Yeah…I think there's a coffin in here or something."

Rosette stifled a shriek. "Is there really?"

"Yeah." Joshua added wickedly, "Why don't you come check? I'm not too good at this sort of stuff."

Rosette gulped hard, then descended the steps into the room. One… two… three…

"_Yeeeek! _It's a coffin!"

In her surprise, she somehow managed to trip over her own feet while trying to back out of the room. She landed with a thump on her right shoulder. When she looked up from where she lay on the ground, she met the dull eyes of…

…_a boy?_

"Hey! Who're you?"

Joshua hurried down the steps. "Who're you talking to, Rosette?" He stopped as the strange figure slowly stood up. Before them stood a boy who looked to be about their age, with expressionless purplish eyes and dark blue-purple hair that went all the way to his waist. He wore a decorated red headband and an old, battered up traveling cloak that hid the rest of his clothes, although Rosette caught a glimpse of black boots under the top layer. The only other thing she could see was a watch, hanging on a chain around his neck.

"Who…are you?"

Rosette jumped as she realized that the boy had spoken. "W-Who, us?"

He ignored her question as he shifted his gaze past them to the open door.

"How did you get in here?"

Joshua stiffened as those blank eyes fell upon him. "I didn't do anything," he said defensively. "I just touched the writing, and then they opened on their own."

The stranger made no sign of having heard, instead choosing to look at Rosette as she stomped up to him until they were nose-to-nose. Then…

"I could ask you the same thing!" she yelled. "Who in the world are you, and what're you doing in this tomb of a place? Sitting next to a _coffin, _of all things?"

"I am Chrono. I'm what you humans would call a demon."

"A…demon?" Joshua said softly as Rosette fell back a step. A demon? What in the world…?

"I am also sometimes referred to as a devil. Either way…" He took a step forward that maybe would've been menacing, if he hadn't looked so emotionless. "I'm a being that humans should fear."

Suddenly, without warning, he fell to the ground and let out a groan of pain. Rosette gasped and knelt beside him.

"Are you all right?" she demanded. "Anything wrong? No hurts, pains, injuries?"

"It's nothing," Chrono forced out through gritted teeth. "I am merely lacking in astral energy."

Rosette's face scrunched up as she worked through his words. Finally, she realized what he meant. "So basically, you're hungry!" She rummaged through one of her pockets, mumbling, "I'm _sure _I had it in here… I'm _positive…_"

Joshua walked forward until he was by his sister's side. "What is it, Rosette?"

She ignored him, and let out a triumphant _ah-ha!_ as she found what she was looking for. She held out her hands, now filled with candies, to Chrono.

"Here! I've been saving this up for an emergency, but you look pretty worn out to me! You can have it!"

Chrono looked from her hands to her face, as though unsure of what to do. The room was completely silent for a few moments. Then:

"_Hey! _I've been suffering from hunger all this time, and you kept these from me?"

"Shut up!" Rosette retorted. "I've been saving these for an emergency, I said it already! Your stomach can wait! _His _can't! He's been locked up in a tomb for who knows how long!"

"You're just saying that because you wanted to keep them all to yourself! Here! Give me some!"

Joshua lunged and Rosette pulled her hands back. "That's ridiculous! I'd happily share with you, but it wasn't an emergency!"

"Liar!"

"Stupid!"

"Greedy pig!"

"Hey! You…"

They continued bickering, completely forgetting about the third person in the room. That is, they forgot about him until they heard chuckling. Both of them turned from their half-wrestling position to look at Chrono, who was now full-out laughing. It was Rosette who spoke.

"Chrono? It's Chrono, right? What's so funny?"

"Oh, nothing," Chrono said, but even as he said it, he was laughing – although the laughing was considerably softer and more muffled than it had been before.

"It's just… You two fight like a pair of alley cats, but you're siblings! It just seems so funny!"

Rosette straightened and brushed off her clothes. "Well, of course it seems funny! You've been locked up with this coffin for so long that you don't even remember what funny means, probably!" Then something occurred to her. "Wait. Who's in the coffin?"

Chrono looked away. "It's the holy priestess, Magdalene. She…well…"

He was interrupted when his senses informed him about a slightly malicious presence nearby. Not exactly malicious, but…something along those lines. He slowly turned his head until he was facing Joshua, who had sparkles in his eyes and was smiling like it was his birthday and he'd just gotten all the gifts he wanted.

"Are you really a demon?" Joshua demanded as Chrono instinctively took a step back. You could almost hear Chrono think _uh-oh _as Joshua pressed onward. "I was so caught up in the whole candy incident that I forgot, but now that I think about it, you said you were a demon, didn't you? What's a demon? Are you _really _one? Is there any difference between you and a devil? I mean, I've read lots of sci-fi books, but they've never said anything about that! Oh, and also…"

Joshua's voice went on asking questions. Rosette smirked when she saw the look of helplessness on Chrono's face. He looked at her from his position against the wall and gave her a look that screamed, _help me! _She knew how he felt – she'd been subjected to Joshua's endless questioning many times before. But as much fun as it was to watch him do it to someone else, she had to stop him before he scared off the newcomer. So she marched up and grabbed the back of his shirt, then yanked. _Hard. _

"Hey! Ouch!" He tumbled head over heels, rolling until he came to a stop at the bottom of the stairs. He rubbed his backside with a wince, then glared at Rosette. "That hurt!"

"Oh, sorry," she said loftily, "but if I let you go on, this poor guy here probably would've died under pressure. Plus, it seemed to me that your face was getting slightly red. I had to make you breathe _somehow, _didn't I?"

This started another argument between the two siblings. They bickered, and began to wrestle until their fight was interrupted by an enormous _boom! _that seemed to make the building rock on its foundations. They immediately stopped fighting and clutched each other, as though they'd die if they let go.

"W-W-W-Was that…"

"R-R-R-Rosette, I think…"

"_Waaahh! _Help, somebody!"

"H-Hey, Rosette, i-it'll be f-f-fine…"

They both shrieked when there was another boom of thunder, and turned to Chrono.

"H-Help!"

"W-W-We're going to d-d-die!"

Chrono looked down at them in slight bemusement. They were both shaking so hard that they seemed to be vibrating, and from the looks on their faces, you would've guessed that the devil itself was after them. "What are you two talking about? It's just a thunderstorm."

"Y-You don't understand," Rosette whispered as they huddled into a ball on the ground. "T-The last time there was a t-t-thunderstorm, w-we were taking s-shelter under a tree, a-and…"

"It got hit by lightning. Is that it?"

"_Y-Y-Yes!"_ the two screamed simultaneously as the thunder made a sudden reappearance. Chrono knelt down beside the two.

"Don't worry. It'll be fine. It'll be over in a few minutes."

Two tearful faces turned to him. "R-R-Really?" Joshua whispered doubtfully. Chrono gave him a reassuring smile.

"Really."

Although the storm was still raging outside, Joshua and Rosette had somehow fallen peacefully asleep. Looking at them, you never would've imagined that they'd been emotional wrecks just a few minutes ago.

Chrono sat next to the coffin and watched them.

He didn't need to sleep. Not really. After sleeping for about fifty years or so, he had enough rest for a century. Maybe not that long, but he was still well-rested enough to go for at least a week without sleep.

He watched the two intriguing children who had stumbled upon him and wondered, _What will happen to them in the future? Will they be healthy, and strong? Will they be lucky enough to live long and happy lives?_

_Or will they die early, like Magdalene did? _

A clap of thunder interrupted his thoughts. He burrowed his head down into his arms. Perhaps it would be best if he closed his eyes for just a few seconds. Not to sleep – of course not. Just to rest. Calm his thoughts.

Before he knew it, his eyelids were slipping shut.

And then he was asleep.

-0-

When he awoke the following morning, it was to find Joshua and Rosette already up and fully - or at least, mostly - awake. Rosette noticed him as he slowly stood up. "Oh! Chrono! Good morning!"

He gave her an unhappy look as she beamed at him. Clearly, this girl was very energetic in the morning – something that he was not.

"Rosette, leave him 'lone… He's probably tired, too… Not everyone actually wakes up this early in the morning like you do, y'know…"

Rosette frowned at her brother. "Nonsense! This isn't early – what're you talking about? The sun's up and the birds are singing – I'm guessing it's about eight o'clock. And you're complaining?"

Both Chrono and Joshua groaned. Eight o'clock was early – _too _early for sleepyheads like them.

"Come on, you two!" Rosette laughed. "Joshua, we've got to get back to the orphanage, so whether you like it or not, you've got to get up. As for Chrono…"

"I'm not coming with you," he said quickly. "I'll just stay here."

Rosette frowned. "Why not? I mean, we could just pretend you're an orphan, too – nobody has to know that you're a…you know."

Chrono shook his head. "No. I think they'll be able to tell." He pushed back his hair to reveal a pointed ear – an ear that most definitely was not human.

"Oh. Oh. I see…"

"Besides," Chrono continued, "I _want _to stay here. No point in burdening you two with my presence."

Rosette was instantly upon him. "_Burdening _us? What're you talking about? It's a _pleasure _for us to hang out with you! You're – I don't know, but you seem…"

"More fun than any of the other kids we know?" Joshua supplied helpfully as he stifled a yawn.

"Yeah! That's it!"

Rosette and Joshua both stood up and walked towards the door. "Oh, and by the way," Rosette added, just before she and Joshua left the room, "we'll be back, Chrono – okay? You can be sure of it! We'll make out way back somehow!"

"You mean, we'll try to come back and you'll get us lost again?" Joshua mumbled.

Rosette shoved him, not too hard, but still pretty hard. He stumbled and just barely managed to catch himself before he planted his face in the ground. "Rosette! Why, you…"

"We'll be back though, okay?" she called back to Chrono. Then she and Joshua left, bickering all the way.

Chrono sighed and went back to his position next to the coffin. Would they really be back? Maybe, maybe not.

He heard a small crinkling sound as he settled himself down. He felt the ground and couldn't help but smile when he found the source of the noise.

In his hand rested several candies.

-0-

"And _how, _Rosette, do you plan on us being able to find our way back?"

Rosette didn't answer. She was too busy looking for something on the ground.

"Rosette?"

She finally came up with a series of stones. "Here! We'll use these!"

Joshua stared at them. "They're rocks."

"Yeah!" Rosette beamed.

"And how, daresay, do you plan on using _rocks _to let us find our way back?"

Rosette sighed. "Oh, my poor, unimaginative, creativity-deprived brother… We'll use these at intersections to mark which way to go."

"Wha…?"

She knelt down beside the entrance to the building and stacked a few rocks on top of each other to form a sort of pyramid. "There! See? That tells us that this is the building!"

Joshua still had a befuddled look on his face. "Won't they just fall over the next time there's a windy day?"

"Silly little brother! Watch." She bent over and blew hard on them. They didn't move. She flicked one of the bottom ones with her finger. It didn't move. She placed her finger on the centermost rock on the bottom and pushed. Other than a slight movement, the structure didn't move.

"See?" She stood up and grinned. "Perfectly stable!"

Joshua, who'd been watching silently all this time, just sighed. "Okay, then. Can we go back now? Please? I want to curl up in a nice, warm, soft bed and sleep for the rest of the day."

She scowled. "Jeez, you're so lazy! But you're right – we should go now. Come on!"

Three days passed and Chrono still hadn't seen any sign of the two children who'd passed through this room on the day of the thunderstorm. It was fine, though, really. He didn't really expect for them to come back – after all, who'd want to be friends with a demon?

Suddenly, his ears perked up. What was that he heard in the hallway?

Footsteps.

As they approached, he could hear the familiar bickering: "Joshua! Give it to me! I'll hold it for you – you're too weak!"

"Oh, shut up, sis! I haven't had a fit for almost a week now – I'm perfectly fine!"

"Come _on! _Just _give _it!"

"You just want to have first dibs on food!"

"Is that all that you think of your elder sister? What a shame, Joshua – truly, what a shame…"

Chrono ran to the doorway, and, sure enough, there stood the two children.

"Hey, Chrono! We brought a picnic! Want a snack?"

He felt a slow smile creep onto his face. They'd come back, after all. Even against all the odds. He took a few steps back so that they'd be able to pass and nodded.

"Sure."


	2. Chapter 2

"Chrono!"

Chrono looked up from his usual position next to the door, searching for the two familiar faces. Yep – there they were, lugging a picnic basket behind them.

"Chrono! We managed to get lots of food!"

"Sure was an adventure, eh, Joshua?"

"Shut up – it's your fault we didn't get more!"

Chrono smiled as the two siblings argued. They stopped and gasped when the picnic basket was opened.

"They gave us _cupcakes? _I didn't know that! I call dibs on first one!"

"Hey, hey – at least let Chrono take some! He hardly eats anything!"

The two of them turned to Chrono, and Rosette grudgingly offered the pastry in her hand to him. He shook his head with a smile, and said, "Nah, it's okay, Rosette. You keep it. I'll just take something else."

"See?" Rosette stuck her tongue out at her brother. "Unlike _somebody, _Chrono's actually nice!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. So! What're we going to do today?"

They'd been visiting Chrono for at least a week now, and each time, they'd done something different: Explore the nearby buildings, go to a park, go to the nearby swimming pool (of course, it was when it was closed, and the three of them didn't pay for admission), things like that. They didn't visit every day, since the orphanage didn't allow them to, but they came as often as they could. That was enough.

"Hey!" Rosette suddenly stood up. "This is a very big building, right?" She turned her gaze upon Joshua and Chrono, as though to say, _give me an answer already!_ They both quickly nodded.

"And there are lots of rooms, here, right? That could be filled with different things?"

Again, a quick nod.

"Then let's explore every single room! I mean, that'll give us plenty to do – and it's nearby, too, so we don't have to waste as much time going to places!"

Joshua's eyes lit up. "Sure! After all, if there's a demon in this room, who knows what there could be in the other ones?" His eyes took on a dreamy look as he continued, "Dragons, fairies, mermaids, robots, unicorns, sphinxes, griffins…"

As Joshua prattled on, Rosette turned to Chrono with a smile on her face. "Well? You in?"

For a moment, he was speechless. He felt tempted to say _no, _just in case, but he eventually nodded. "Sure." _After all, nothing bad can happen, _he told himself. _It's not like any demons are going to be in the rooms._

_It's not like Aion's anywhere nearby._

_-_-0-

"Whoa!"

"Awesome!"

The two children stared at the vehicle before them with sparkles in their eyes. Unanimously, they cried, "It's a Mercedes!"

Chrono was watching them with a face that read, _huh? _Finally, he asked, "What's a Mercedes?"

The twins turned upon him, this time with fiery eyes. "How could you _not _know what a Mercedes is?"

"It's only the most _amazing _car company on earth!"

"And there's one right in front of us!"

The twins ran to the car and began exclaiming over every single little detail. Chrono watched them, still befuddled. "Aren't carsmore...you know, square?"

Two pairs of eyes stared at him quizzically. "Chrono," Rosette said cautiously, "how long were you locked up in here, exactly?"

They waited as he counted backwards in his head. "About…five or six decades? I think. More or less."

Joshua came up and patted Chrono on the back with a heavy sigh. "Chrono, buddy, I feel bad for you." Rosette nodded in agreement. "You were in that dusty room for half a century? No wonder you were hungry when you woke up!"

Chrono shrugged and looked from side to side awkwardly. "Okay. Well." He pulled them to the car in an attempt to change the subject. "So how does this thing work, anyway?"

Rosette and Joshua's eyes lit up as they began to fill him in on the specifics of sports cars.

Five minutes later, they'd gotten over their awe of the car and were wandering around aimlessly. Chrono watched them as they first dashed into the car, then out, then went to the door (which had bizarre pictures engraved in it), then went back into the car, then left it. And so on. Finally, Rosette fell onto the ground with a thump.

"I'm bored!" she whined. Joshua obviously felt the same way.

Chrono watched them nervously. After five decades of isolation, he still wasn't quite too sure about how to deal with bored people. After all, boredom might turn to anger, or sadness, or fear, or something like that. So he quickly said, "How about we check out some of the other rooms, too? They're sure to be interesting."

Rosette leapt up and dashed to the doorway. "Good idea, Chrono! Let's go!"

The next room they entered was full of clothes, jewelry, makeup, and all other sorts of accessories. Chrono personally didn't see much meaning to keeping so much stuff cooped up in one place – wouldn't it be better to actually _use _all of this stuff? – but when Rosette picked up a watch lying on the ground, she gasped.

"Joshua!" she shouted. "This is Gucci!"

Joshua was also staring, transfixed, at some necklaces in a box. "Those are real diamonds," he whispered. "I'm sure of it."

Chrono frowned and looked around for something to entertain himself with. Not much of interest – it was mostly just clothes, clothes, more clothes, and the occasional glimmer here or there that came from some sort of accessory. There were some shoes, too, but not as many of those. Finally, something caught his eye. He walked over to the corner of the room and picked up a dark red cloak. _Not bad, _he thought. He shrugged off the dirty old cape he was wearing and pulled the red one on.

"Oh, that looks real nice!" a voice said from next to his ear. Chrono jumped and turned to see who the voice belonged to. Naturally, it was Rosette. She was giggling.

"You should've seen how high you jumped!" she finally managed to say when she was done with her laughter. "I thought that you were a kangaroo or something!"

Chrono felt a slight blush on his cheeks, and was glad when Rosette turned and cried, "Oh my goodness! It's a bunch of _normal _clothes that I could actually wear!"

She ran over to the pile and began to dig through it. She finally came up, triumphant, with a pair of jeans, a T-shirt and a sweater.

"I'm going to change," she said sternly to Chrono, "so don't you dare look! You too, Joshua!"

"Oh, come on! I'm your brother!" Joshua complained, but he turned all the same. Chrono turned to face the wall and tried to think of something – _anything _– but the girl behind him. Luckily, changing only took her a few minutes, so Chrono didn't have to wait too long.

"I'm decent now!" Rosette called. "Look! Isn't it so much better than that old, raggedy dress?"

Personally, Chrono preferred the dress, but the clothes she'd chosen weren't bad, either. Of course, he didn't have very much time to look at her new clothes, since she was sitting down with the "old, raggedy dress" in her hands.

"Finally! I can do away with this thing!"

She grabbed a bunch of fabric and _pulled. _There was a huge ripping noise as a chunk of skirt came off in her hand.

"Rosette! What're you doing? Miss Jean will be so mad!"

"To heck with Miss Jean!" Rosette yelled as she ripped off yet another bunch of fabric. "Making me wear this dumb old thing when she has plenty of better, modern clothing – I don't care that her belief is "females should wear traditional female clothing!"

She punctuated each word with yet another ripping sound. When she was done, the dress was lying in tatters around her.

"Okay!" she said briskly as she made her way to the door. Chrono and Joshua were just staring open-mouthed at the remains of her previous outfit. "_What _are you two _gawking _at? Let's _go!_"

The two of them immediately lifted their gaze and ran to Rosette's waiting figure.

Weeks passed and they explored more and more rooms. More than once, they couldn't come because Miss Jean – or someone else – had prevented them from doing so, or because Joshua had suffered another seizure. But they managed to come fairly regularly, and each time, they made sure to bring some food.

"Sorry, Chrono," Rosette said as she dropped two buns and an apple. "This was all I could get."

"I brought some licorice, if you want." Joshua offered the candy to Chrono, who accepted it without a word. He didn't really _need _to eat, but if he didn't, he'd get a lot weaker, so he just ate whatever they brought him.

"Come on! Hurry up and finish it! We're exploring the fifth floor today!"

"Wasn't it the sixth?" Chrono asked as he was dragged to his feet.

"No, Rosette, Chrono, you're both wrong – it was the seventh. Let's go!"

The two of them dashed up the now-familiar set of stairs that they'd discovered on one of their adventures. After four flights, they were all panting.

"Why – the heck – aren't there – elevators – here?" Rosette panted as she dragged herself up to the fifth floor.

"This place was built in the nineteen fifties," Chrono answered as he dashed up the fifth flight. Being a demon, he had more stamina than the other two, and so could handle the stairs without _too _much of a problem.

"Rosette – honestly, you – complain – so much!" Joshua said as they got up to the sixth floor. Sure enough, the door was open – a sign they'd already been there. With heavy sighs, the siblings turned to the stairs again. Chrono had already gotten to the floor above, and was calling down, "Come on, you two – hurry!"

Rosette dragged herself up the last step and collapsed, breathing hard. Joshua fell, too, and lay on his back for a few minutes as he tried to control his heartbeat. When, finally, a few minutes later, they got up, they faced an astonished Chrono and a massive pair of doors, not unlike those in the hallways.

"Wha…?"

Normally, the doors that opened onto each floor were made of plain steel, with a simple knob and peephole set in them. This was different. _Very _different.

"Well, what're we waiting for?" Rosette at last said. "Let's go in!"

It took the combined forces of all three children to push the doors open. When they finally did, with an enormous creaking noise, all three of them stopped dead in their tracks and gasped.

Before them was a beautiful paradise, with a lush forest growing at one side, a pond growing at the other, and a little creek running from the water into the woods. Over the water was a crop of rock, large enough to seat at least ten people at a time. And above their heads, there was a beautiful, clear blue sky, with a few wispy clouds drifting this way and that, and a bright sun beating down on their faces. There was just enough of a breeze that the three of them felt cool, but it wasn't large enough to freeze them all.

"Wow," Joshua breathed.

"This is _amazing!_" Rosette cried, and immediately made a beeline to the pond. Chrono merely walked around the perimeter of the room. It was rather large – about twenty meters by thirty – and was covered with mostly forestland, grassy hills, plains or water. The pond took up about a quarter of the room; the forest was just slightly larger, and there was an area at the back that was just grass and slopes, with a few flowers or fruit trees scattered here and there. Suddenly, he frowned.

"What's this?"

Joshua turned around from where he'd been inspecting a tree. "Huh?"

Rosette looked up from her place in the pond. "What's it?"

"Come and see."

Rosette waded towards Chrono, while Joshua merely ran to him. When they arrived, they could see the object of his puzzlement. It was a dial with multiple labels: _Nice weather, windy, cold, snowy, rain, thunderstorm, hail… _On and on and on. How the creators had managed to fit so many words there, they had no idea, but they weren't really thinking about that.

"Nice weather." All three of them looked around, then nodded, as if in agreement that this was probably the "nice weather" on the dial. Since that icon was under the arrow, they were probably right.

"Windy." They looked at each other and, without a word, agreed to try this one another time, when they had on more clothes.

"Cold." Again, they looked at each other, nodded, and went on to the next one.

"Snowy."

"Rain."

"Thunderstorm – no, don't worry, you two, I'm not going to turn it to that."

"Hail."

"Tornado. Who'd want a tornado in a room?"

"Cloudy. That's not too bad, I guess we could try that."

They all held their breath as Joshua reached out and turned the knob: _Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click._ Then they all stood back and waited.

It wasn't long before the sky above them began to darken with clouds. When it did, they began to shiver. The sudden change in weather had also brought about a change in temperature; it now felt ten degrees lower than it had been previously.

"L-Let's try t-this one now," Chrono said with chattering teeth. He reached out a hand and turned the knob so that _nighttime _was at the top. They only had to wait a few seconds until the clouds retreated and the sky turned black. The sun disappeared and was replaced by a bright, crescent moon, and specks of light began popping up in the sky.

"Weird. That's what the moon looked like last night, wasn't it?"

"It was, sis. Just a big smaller, I think."

They looked at each other, and it was clear that they were all thinking the same thing: _What kind of technology that's created in the nineteen hundreds can simulate all sorts of weather, _and _follow the actual moon cycle? _

"Oh, well. Turn it back to fine weather, Chrono – I'm going to go back to the water!"


	3. Chapter 3

"Waah!"

Rosette lay down with a thump and sighed contentedly. "That was a good meal!"

"Rosette, you _pig!_" Joshua cried. "You ate all of the tuna sandwiches!"

She stuck out her tongue at her brother. "The early bird gets the worm, Joshua, and you were _not _early this time." She turned to Chrono. "Well? How is it?"

Chrono took another bite out of his ham-and-cheese sandwich. "Not bad," he said through a mouthful of food. "It's actually very good."

"Of course it is!" Rosette pouted. "I made it myself!"

"Oh, no," Joshua cried. "You _made _these? Chrono, buddy, we're both going to die!"

Chrono turned to look at Joshua with a slightly befuddled expression. "Huh?"

"Rosette puts poison in the food she makes," Joshua explained. "Why, I remember when we first came here, she was put on kitchen duty and made a whole pot of stew. And you know what? After eating it, twenty kids got diarrhea!"

"Excuse me!" Rosette cried indignantly. "I didn't know that the milk had gone bad!"

"And another time," Joshua continued, ignoring his sister, "we were baking cookies for some of the really little kids – you know, the five- or six-year-old ones. And when they ate them, suddenly, they all turned slightly purple in the face and started to yell for water!"

"Well, excuse _me, _Mister Perfect, but I didn't realize that the candy tin contained dried chili peppers!"

"And another time-"

"Shut _up!_"

Her fist slammed into the top of Joshua's head. He teetered on his feet for a few seconds before falling to the ground.

"Joshua! Are you all right?"

"He's fine," Rosette said briskly. "I do that to him all the time. See? Just a little lump. Maybe a bit of a bruise, too."

Chrono shuddered. The "little lump" that Rosette had described was about as big as two of his fists together, and the "bit of a bruise" seemed to have turned all the hair on the top of Joshua's head into a slightly more maroon color.

"A little lump? A bit of a bruise? I feel sorry for Joshua and all the kids living at that orphanage," Chrono muttered.

"_What did you say?_"

Chrono jumped up and began backing away from a very angry Rosette. Clearly, she had supernatural hearing abilities, because Chrono could've sworn that he'd barely said that loud enough for even himself to hear.

"N-Nothing," he stuttered. "I-I-I was just talking about…how we should really get him back to the orphanage! I mean, you said that he's sick, right? What if he doesn't get better soon?"

Rosette narrowed her eyes, still slightly suspicious, but finally just let the matter drop. "Don't worry, he will – I do this to him plenty of times, and he's always up after a minute or two. See? Look! He's up!"

Joshua was, indeed, up – if you could call walking around like a drunken man and holding his head as though it were splitting into two parts being "up."

"Man," Joshua moaned. "I feel like I have a hangover!"

"Don't be ridiculous." Rosette grinned and raised her hand to give her brother a slap on the back – a slap that, in his current state, would've probably sent him flying into the nearest tree.

"Hey!" Chrono shouted desperately. "Why don't we go explore some more? I mean, we managed to finish the seventh floor, right? Let's move on to the eighth!"

Rosette turned around, Joshua temporarily forgotten. The said boy mouthed "thank you" to the young demon, who nodded in return.

"Good idea! Well, what're you two waiting for? Let's go!"

Some days later, the three of them climbed up to the ninth floor. Once again, there were two massive doors that looked out-of-place in the rickety stairwell.

"Come on! Let's open it – there's probably something awesome behind this one, too!"

"I'm not too sure about that…" Chrono murmured. "Look at the carving on the door – doesn't it show a lion killing a deer?"

"No, it's an antelope," Joshua corrected. "But Chrono's right, Rosette – I've got a bad feeling about this one."

"Nonsense! That's just because of all the dust. Come on, give me a hand!"

The boys looked at each other and sighed, but went to help Rosette with opening one – _one _– of the doors. It creaked open, and Rosette peered in.

"_Eeeek!"_

"Huh? What is it?"

Chrono managed to maneuver himself into a position where he could see into the room. When he did, he gasped.

The only thing his brain managed to process was the enormous lion gorging itself on an antelope. But that was enough.

"Close the door! Close the door!" Chrono shouted frantically at Joshua.

"Huh? What? What is it?"

"_Lion!_"

Joshua immediately began to pull on the handle. Not long after, Chrono and Rosette joined him, and the door slammed shut.

"Whew! Close call!"

"Yeah, it was – that lion freaked the _heck _out of me! Joshua? What do you think? Joshua?"

They turned to Joshua. He was leaning against the door, sweat dropping down his face and panting hard.

"Hey – Joshua, I'm really sorry about making you do that. I mean, it must've been hard on your body and all…"

"Ro-sette," Joshua panted. "It's…it's coming."

Rosette's face changed to a look of horrification. "No!"

"What is it?"

Rosette turned to him with a look of panic on her face. "Chrono! Help me bring Joshua back to the sixth floor!"

"Huh?" He stared at her in bewilderment. "Wha…?"

"And _hurry!_"

They barely managed to drag Joshua into the grassy room before it started.

"Shit! Shit! _Shit! _Chrono, you grab his legs!"

"What?"

"_Hurry it up, Chrono!"_

Rosette grabbed Joshua's arms just before they began to flail. Chrono was not as lucky and got a knee in the jaw before he managed to hold the boy's legs down.

"Now what?"

"_Just hold him down, Chrono!"_

Rosette pinned Joshua's convulsing arms under her legs and pulled a little rag from out of her pocket. She pulled it tight and stuffed it into Joshua's mouth, like a gag.

"That should do it," she panted. "Now he should be able to breath…uh oh."

Chrono didn't even have time to ask what was wrong before she slammed her hands onto her ears.

"_Yeeeeeeeeeeee!"_

Chrono managed to sit on top of Joshua's legs and then covered his own ears as well. The shrieks were loud enough to make him feel like someone was slamming his head into a brick wall.

"It's okay, Joshua!" Rosette shouted above the screams. "Joshua, calm down! The pain will be gone, and then it'll be all right!"

Chrono had no idea how she could even talk. He could barely _think _with all the noise.

"Joshua? Joshua, don't forget to breath! Oh, dammit!"

She took her hands off her ears and winced when the sound hit her eardrums full-blast.

"Joshua!"

Chrono could see what the problem was. Joshua's face was starting to turn blue, and he hadn't drawn a breath for thirty seconds now – at least. But he was still screaming.

"_God damn it!"_

She grabbed the rag that had fallen from Joshua's mouth and attempted to gag him again. It didn't help; he just kept screaming through it.

"Time to use Plan B," she gritted out. She lifted her elbow and slammed it into Joshua's head.

He let out a final half-hearted scream, then fell silent.

"Don't worry about it," Rosette whispered to Chrono. She was sitting next to her unconscious brother, waiting for him to wake up. "It just knocked him unconscious, that's all. I have to do it sometimes, when the seizures get so bad that he can't respond to us, or when he can't stop screaming long enough to breath. It's the only thing that works."

"That wasn't what I asked, though," Chrono said, exasperated. "Are you okay?"

She nodded, eyes still not leaving her brother's body. "Yeah. I'm fine. I just – I didn't think it would happen again so soon, you know? Usually, it's once every month, or every few weeks – it's only when he's really sick that it happens this often…"

"When was the last one?"

She looked up at him and flatly said, "Two days ago. In the middle of the night."

Chrono stood there for a while, stunned. Two seizures, two days apart, when normally, it was once a month. That wasn't good. It boded of something bad to come.

He snapped back to reality when Rosette stood up and sighed.

"It looks like he won't be waking up anytime soon. I guess I did it a bit too hard this time…" She gave him a thin smile. "I've got to take him back to the orphanage. I promise we'll come back in a few days, though, okay?"

Chrono felt a pang as he watched her try to carry her brother. She was too young for this! Only thirteen _– not even thirteen, _he corrected himself – and she already had to deal with this kind of stuff? It was too much!

"Here, I'll help you," Chrono said before he could stop himself. Rosette looked up, evidently surprised.

"No, I'm fine. I can do it on my own – I've done it before."

_Oh, well, _Chrono thought. _If I've already started, might as well continue._

"But that was only for short distances, wasn't it?" he pressed. "After all, all the other times he fainted were usually near the orphanage, right?"

She flushed. "I'm not weak, if that's what you're saying."

"No! No, no, no! It's not! It's just that, you know, me being a demon and all, I might be able to help…"

She eyed him. It was plain that she was itching to accept his offer, but her pride wouldn't let her.

"What about your ears?" she finally said. "Won't they notice them and figure out that you're a demon?"

Chrono took his red headband and pulled it down so that it covered the pointed tips of his ears. "Problem solved."

Rosette chewed her lip as she thought. It was true that he'd probably be stronger than her, and it would be nice to have his company as she walked… Besides, what was the worst that could happen?

"All right. Fine. You can come."


	4. Chapter 4

"Miss Jean!"

The enormous building remained silent. Rosette dropped Joshua's legs and rushed through the gates.

"_Miss Jean!"_

"Boo!"

Instead of screaming, as Chrono felt he would've done, Rosette simply reached up and grabbed the hand around her neck. Then she twisted it.

"_Ouch!"_

"Oh, hey, Billy," Rosette said nonchalantly as she turned to face him. He was crouching on the ground, clutching his wrist, and whipped his head up to glare at her.

"Oh, come on, Rosette! It was a joke! A prank! Get it?"

"Yeah. I'm _totally _going to believe something you say. Anyway, can you help us with Joshua?"

Billy stood up and peered over her shoulder. His eyes widened when he glimpsed the boy, unconscious on the ground. "Whoa! What did you hit the poor kid with, a mallet?"

Rosette punched him in the stomach. Chrono cringed. Billy did more than just wince. "Just help me carry him! And where's Miss Jean?"

Billy turned back as best as he could and hollered, "Don't worry, kids! Just plain old Rosette."

Slowly, children began appearing everywhere. Some popped out of bushes, others dropped out of trees, and some slid out of dark nooks and crannies.

"Someone get Miss Jean."

All the children turned and ran into the building.

"Come on and help me get Joshua in, Billy!" Rosette cried. "Me and Chrono are all tired out now."

"Oh, so now you're making me carry a hundred-pound kid?" Billy grumbled. "After you've damaged me for life with that punch?" Nevertheless, he went over and picked up Joshua. "Who's this kid, anyway?"

Chrono quickly looked down. He didn't really feel like going up against someone who could easily withstand one of Rosette's punches. Okay, maybe not _easily, _but if he wasn't rolling on the ground for half an hour after being hit, he had to be pretty strong.

"Leave the poor kid alone, Billy!" Rosette yelled. "He helped carry Joshua back! He doesn't need to put up with your silliness!"

Billy turned and glared at her. "Silliness, is it? How silly will it be when he turns out to be a spy from the FBI, who's trying to kidnap your precious brother? Huh? Then who'll care if he helped carry Joshua once?"

Rosette sighed. "Billy, you're imagining things. Come on – let's get Joshua inside."

"_I'm _imagining things?" he protested as he began walking back to the house. "Who's always imagining that the Minister's only intention is to take Joshua and pluck out his organs or something? Not me, for sure."

Rosette blushed. She actually blushed. "Well, excuse me! Hey, Chrono – come on already! Don't just stand there like you're a fish out of water or something!"

Chrono quickly shut his mouth and rushed after them.

-0-

Miss Jean was a kind, old woman with wrinkles and gray hair tied back in a bun. When she saw the unconscious Joshua, she cried, "Oh, my!" and hurried to place him on a bed.

As soon as she was done, she turned to Rosette. "Rosette! How many times have I told you not to knock your brother unconscious? It's unladylike! And wear a dress, would you? Those _jeans _of yours…" She shuddered."

"Yes, yes, yes," Rosette replied, unperturbed. "By the way, your bun's coming out. Don't you want to fix it or something?"

As Miss Jean hurried to put the hair back to its original form, Rosette turned to the other kids, who had gathered around Chrono and were staring up at him in fascination.

"Who's he?" one kid demanded.

"Yeah, who _is _he?"

"Ooh – was he sent here by the Minister?"

"Hey! What's your name? I'm Lizzie, and I-"

"I'm Jonathan! And this is-"

Chrono sent Rosette a desperate look. It was obvious what he was trying to say: _Help!_ She sighed but went to help him nonetheless. It _was _her fault that he was here, after all.

"Kids, kids, kids – come on, calm down!"

The children stopped their loud chattering and turned to Rosette. "Can _you _tell us who he is?"

"This is Chrono. Okay? I met him while I was trying to bring Joshua back to the orphanage. He'll be staying with us for a night or two, until Joshua gets better. You guys leave him alone – got that?"

A few mischievous-looking girls giggled at Rosette's last words. Rosette fixed them with a glare. "Rebecca and Annie, don't pull any of your pranks on him! He's a guest."

"Where _were _you two children?" Miss Jean cried as she rushed back into the room. "Honestly – I can never tell where you two run off to!"

"It's a secret," Rosette replied. She winked at Chrono, who seemed to be at a loss for words.

"Really, though!" Miss Jean planted her hands on her hips. "Next time, at least tell me when you're coming back, all right?"

Rosette rolled her eyes. "Fine, fine, fine. Hey, when's lunch? Boy, am I hungry!"

Miss Jean threw her hands up into the air in defeat. "What am I ever going to do with you two?"

-0-

"Come on, Chrono! Try some of these muffins!"

Chrono tentatively bit into one. It was surprisingly good. "Hey, Rosette, who's the 'minister' those kids were talking about?"

Rosette froze in the middle of shoving a chicken leg into her mouth. There was a long silence. Then:

"Nunna yer bishnesh!" she shouted as she shoved more food into her mouth.

"Huh? What? But I…"

"Lemme 'lone!" she yelled as she piled her arms with food and ran out of the room.

"Rosette!"

He ran after her, but she was surprisingly fast. By the time he'd reached the door, she was already out of sight.

He stared in befuddlement. "What's with her?"

"Oh, did you ask her about the Minister?"

Chrono looked at the person who'd said that. It was a young girl who looked to be about eight. She was…

"Annie. Right?"

She beamed. "You remembered my name!"

"And the fact that you pull pranks. Who _is _the minister, by the way?"

Annie cast a quick glance around, then leaned in. "The minister is this priest guy from this police/religious organization. Rosette hates him 'cuz he wants to take away Joshua."

"Why would he want to take away Joshua?"

Annie shrugged. "I dunno. He never tells us anything. He just shuts himself up in the office with Miss Jean, and once he talked to Joshua and Rosette. I'm guessing that it's because of his power, though."

Chrono frowned. "What power?"

"Wait, you don't…? Of course they didn't!" she told herself. "They just met you, after all!"

"Oh – you mean his healing?"

Annie stared at him in shock. "How'd you know about that?"

"Uh…umm…." Chrono quickly thought up a story on the spot. "I was playing in the park," he lied, "and Rosette skinned her knee. Joshua healed her, and then had a fit just after that. Then, when Rosette tried to carry him back, I offered her some help and asked about how he healed her. She told me that it's a power that he has."

Chrono squirmed as Annie stared at him suspiciously. Of course, what had actually happened had been that Rosette had sprained her ankle while going down the stairs a while ago, and then had been healed, but he couldn't exactly tell the girl that, could he?

"Story accepted," the little girl finally said. "Seems kinda suspicious, but if you're not telling the truth, it's gotta be because Rosette threatened you or somethin' – and we all know what it's like when Rosette threatens! Don't we, 'Becca?" she called over her shoulder.

A little giggle came from a dark corner of the kitchen. "How'd you know I was here, Annie?"

"Come on," the girl said reproachfully. "I always know when you're around. Come out now! Chrono's a nice guy. Won't hurt you or anything."

The girl – who looked identical to Annie – came out from under a countertop. Chrono blinked. How had he missed her?

"Don't exhaust yourself trying to figure it out," Annie told him. "It's her gift. She's great at hide-and-seek – never play against her, no matter what."

Chrono looked from one girl to the other. He could see a slight difference between them now: Rebecca looked more secretive, whereas Annie seemed more to be the type of person to blab about anything that came across her mind. Both had the same mischievous spark in their eyes.

"You guys aren't pulling a prank on me or anything, are you?" Chrono said cautiously.

The two girls giggled. "No way!" they said in unison. "Just thought you'd want to know where Rosette is. She'll be in Joshua's room. It's down this hall, right turn, second left, up the stairs, first left and third door on the right."

Chrono stared at them. "What? Could you please-"

"Toodles!" they shouted, interrupting before he could finish his sentence and then skipping out of the door. "Good luck finding her!"

-0-

"Down…right… Was it second or third left? I think second…"

Chrono slowly made his way to Joshua's room. The door was shut and he couldn't hear anything from inside, but he guessed that it was the right room. He took a deep breath.

"All right. Here goes…"

He twisted the knob and pushed the door open. Sure enough, there was Joshua, still unconscious next to the bed – and next to him, kneeling on the ground, was Rosette.

"Hey. How'd you get here?"

Chrono told her about the twins.

"Ah. Annie and Rebecca. Should've known. Have a seat, would you?"

He worked his way across the room and sat next to her. "Um…is Joshua okay?"

She nodded. "Yeah. He should be waking up any time now – ah-ha! See? He's up!"

Joshua sat up with a groan. He put a hand to his head. "Rosette…you didn't use your elbow again, did you?"

She frowned. "I just saved your life, and all you say is 'you didn't use your elbow again, did you?' That's just sad, brother. That's just way too sad."

He moaned. "Oh, geez – this one's a record-breaker… How long was I out? Three hours? Four?"

Rosette punched her brother in the arm. "Only one and a half, and I didn't hit you that hard!"

That started up another bout of bickering, which Chrono watched quietly. It looked like any normal fight between the two of them, but when he watched closely, he could tell that something was different.

They were faking it.

"Stop it, you guys."

His voice was so soft that the siblings felt like they'd imagined it, but when they fell silent and turned to him, he was staring at them intensely.

"C-Chrono? What're you…"

"I said, _stop it_!"

The two of them cringed a bit at the tone in his voice. He sounded…angry. Angrier than they'd ever heard him before.

"Stop what? Chrono, buddy, I-"

"You know what I'm talking about!" he yelled. "If you guys are really so concerned, then just say so! Stop pretending that you're perfectly fine and that nothing's wrong!"

They stared at him for a long time. After a few minutes, Rosette finally spoke.

"We can't," she whispered. "If we do…we'd just break down."

Chrono was now even more startled than Rosette or Joshua had been. "Break down? What do you mean, break down?"

"It's not easy being sick," Joshua said softly as he stared out the window. "And it's even harder to be the twin of the person who's sick. You know how long I have, Chrono? The doctors can't come up with a cure. It won't be long now until it gets so bad that it actually kills me."

Chrono was at a loss for words. "But…"

"We _don't have a choice," _Rosette said fiercely. "It's fake being happy or completely breaking down. And I'd prefer the fake happy."

"Doesn't it ever… I mean, you guys…"

But Chrono was starting to understand. If you knew that you were going to die anyway, wouldn't it be better to be happy during the bit of time you were alive than to always mourn and wish for something that would never come? Of course it would. And that was the choice Rosette and Joshua had made.

"Okay. I get it."

He stood up and walked out the door.

"Hey!"

He stopped in the middle of shutting the door. "Yeah, Rosette?"

She was standing and smiling at him timidly. "Well… He'll at least live to see his thirteenth birthday. That's for sure. So you wanna come over on that day?"

"Yeah!" Joshua chimed in. "All the kids are going to be good for once. And Miss Jean is going to bake a three-layer cake! You haven't tasted cake until you've tasted Miss Jean's cake."

"Really, it's a wonder that she can be so good at cooking when she has absolutely no sense of fashion whatsoever!" Rosette marveled. "So. Chrono. You up for it?"

He looked at her. Then he looked at Joshua. Both of them had forced smiles, not because they thought he wouldn't accept – they knew him too well for that – but because of the knowledge that the upcoming birthday would probably be Joshua's last. How could he refuse?

"When is it?"


	5. Chapter 5

"Waah!"

The table was covered with food and gifts. There was a roasted chicken, a plateful of cupcakes, skewers of mutton, bowls of salad, candies scattered everywhere, plates and bowls of fruit, platters of cookies, and an enormous chocolate three-layer cake resting on top of the largest gift box of all. Among all the plates were little presents, in boxes or wrapped, lying here and there.

"This is amazing!" Rosette cried, but before she could fling herself onto the food, a hand firmly gripped her shirt's collar.

"Seriously, Rosette." Joshua sighed and began to drag – or try to drag – his protesting sister away from the table. "Can't you ever think of anything but food?"

"I do!" she shouted. "I think of food, and snacks, and sweets, and drinks, and pastries-"

"Dummy." He sighed again. "That's all food. Are you sure that you have a brain tucked somewhere inside of your body, sister dear? Or is it all stuffed with food?"

"Joshua! You're so mean!" She looked to the boy standing nearby. "Chrono, help me out here!"

He smiled. "He's got a point, you know. It wouldn't be very polite to eat it all, would it?"

"But I'm hungry!" she wailed. "And it looks so _good!_"

"Yes, well, the rush you get from jumping off a cliff feels good, but that doesn't mean that you'll be doing it anytime soon, does it?" Joshua wisely said.

Rosette glared at her brother and told him, "You know, sometimes I really hate you."

"I know." He smiled beatifically. "Relax, Rosette – just wait a few minutes and then we'll eat. Okay?"

She did a lot of grumbling about it, but eventually agreed. As soon as she did so, Joshua released her. "There. Aren't you a good girl?"

"Whatever – how long until we eat?"

"Let's see, lunch is at…" Joshua checked the clock. "One o'clock. Right now is eleven forty-five. Good news, Rosette – you only have to last for an hour and fifteen minutes!"

Her fist to his stomach was her only reply.

"Come on, Chrono," she said, turning away from her brother who was now whimpering on the ground. "Let's go somewhere – I'm bored."

"Uh… Y-Yeah." Chrono gave the boy on the ground a sympathetic look before rushing after Rosette. He wasn't normally a selfish person, but even Mother Teresa would've run away from a kid in pain if it meant saving herself from Rosette's wrath.

-0-

"Gah!" Rosette shouted as she ran down the streets. "I want to buy something to eat so _bad!_ But I don't have any money, and besides Joshua would yell at me if I did…" She sighed and flopped down on a bench. "I'm so hungry!"

Chrono sat down beside her. "Don't worry, Rosette," he said with a smile. "It's almost time for lunch. And besides, after that we're going back to the building to explore, so…"

Rosette wasn't listening. She was too focused on her own misery and hunger. "Yes, yes, yes, I know – but I'm _hungry!_"

Suddenly, she bolted up and pointed a finger at Chrono. "And _you,_" she told him, "your hair is really starting to get on my nerves!"

He blinked. That was a rather sudden change of topic. "What?"

"I _said, _your hair is getting on my nerves!" Rosette pulled on her own hair. "Seriously! I mean, doesn't it get in your way? It's so long, and unnerving, and unnatural, and purple, and…and…and…"

She was running out of words to use, so Chrono offered her some. "Bizarre? Strange? Weird? Otherworldly? Straight? Unbelievabl-"

"Yes, yes, yes, all that!" she cried. "And stop showing off your amazing vocabulary – it's not polite!"

She glared at him. "Come here!"

"Huh?" he asked, mystified.

"I _said, _come here!" She impatiently reached for him and pulled him towards her. She pulled a _tad _too hard and ended up overbalancing. Down they went.

"_Chrono!_" Rosette whined as she struggled to get back up. "This is all your fault!"

"How is it _my _fault exactly?" he shouted back. "_You're _the one who pulled me!"

"But you're the one who wouldn't come in the first place!" she wailed.

"You didn't even give me _time _to come! Honestly, Rosette! Get a hold of yourself already!"

She leaned back against the bench. "I'm _hungry, _and _irritated, _and _angry, _and _exhausted, _and-"

"Furious? Enraged? Starving? In despair? Depressed? Disappoin-"

"All right, all right, I get it!" She glared at Chrono. "Can't you offer me _some _relief while I'm suffering like this? Just come over here already, you!"

"Hey…wait…" Too late. She'd already grabbed him by the arm and pulled him over.

"Just sit still while I tame this stuff somehow!" she ordered him. She then proceeded to jerk and tug on hanks of his hair, all the while muttering, "Seriously, this guy…this hair is _so _messy…can't believe him…"

Chrono sat still as Rosette briskly combed through his hair with her fingers. "Geez, Chrono! You've got so many knots and tangles in this!"

"Hey, Rosette, stop pulling so hard! It hurts!" he whined.

"Oh, shut up!" she told him as she began pulling even harder. "No pain, no gain. Got it?"

"At least make sure my ears are still covered up!" he protested. "At this rate, everyone will be able to tell what I really am!"

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, you don't need to tell me that!" She released two handfuls of hair. "There! Happy? They cover up your ears perfectly fine! And wasn't your headband supposed to do that, anyways?"

He flushed and stopped squirming. "Well, it's uncomfortable, and when I do that, I can't see properly…"

She sighed and jerked hard enough on his hair to make his eyes tear. "Geez, Chrono! Just say so and I'll give you something to help with that!"

She worked silently for a few minutes. Finally, she cried, "Done! See, Chrono, isn't it much better than before?"

He stared at the thing she was holding in front of his eyes.

It was his hair. Braided. And tied off with a cute little yellow ribbon.

"Chrono. It's _nice, _isn't it?"

He quickly nodded. "Yes, Rosette! It's very well done!"

She beamed from his praise. "Okay! Say, what time is it? I want to go eat already!"

He sighed. "Rosette, don't just change topic like that…"

"Come on, Chrono – what time is it?"

"Twelve thirty, but – "

"Ack! Only half an hour until lunch? Come on, let's go already!"

"Hey! _Rosette!_"

-0-

"That was _good!_" Rosette sighed and leaned back in her chair contentedly. Before her were multiple stacks of plates and bowls.

"Hey, sis," Joshua said mischievously. "Want me to get you a roast pig, too? Or are you finally full?"

She stuck her tongue out at him. "I'm perfectly stuffed now," she informed him, "and I won't be having any of your sass on my birthday, little boy!"

"Ah, but you forget," Joshua replied as he leaned back in his chair. "It's my birthday as well, old woman, so I suggest you shut your mouth and let me give you as much sass as I want."

That, of course, started another quarrel between them.

"Ah, what a beautiful sunset," Miss Jean commented in the midst of their fight. They both instantly froze.

"Sun...set?" Joshua slowly said.

"Did you just say _sunset?_" Rosette said in much the same voice that Joshua had.

Both their heads swiveled towards Chrono, who gave them a helpless shrug. He _had _wanted to tell them about it, but they'd been too busy gorging themselves, so...

"Chrono. Is now fine?"

He shrugged. "Sure," he replied. "We're going now?"

Rosette nodded and stood up. "Come on, Joshua! Let's go!"

"Wait..." Miss Jean gave them a puzzled look. "Where are you guys going?"

Too late. All three of them had already begun to sprint towards the orphanage gates.

"Sorry, Miss Jean!" Joshua yelled over his shoulder. "We'll be back by sunset tomorrow, promise!"

"Or maybe a big later!" Rosette shouted. "But we'll be back! Promise! Pinky swear!"

"So sorry, Miss Jean!" Chrono yelled as he dashed after the twins. "But you know Rosette and Joshua! Hope you'll forgive me!"

"You two!" she yelled as she attempted to run after them. "Listen - no, you three! Come back here and tell me where you're going!"

By the time that she staggered up to the gates, out-of-breath and red-faced, the three of them were already out of sight.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: **How many chapters long should I make this fanfic? Because I've already figured out the ending - I just have to decide how much stuff to put in between.

If nobody is at all enthusiastic about this fanfiction and decides not to tell me that they want me to make it long because clicking the "review" button would take too much time, I'll just cut it short. As in, short. _Really _short. As short as possible. (Which means I'll basically skip all the way from the contract to smack-dab in the middle of a fight, just a bit before the climax starts. Or somewhere along those lines.)

Just warning you - if you like the story and want it long, you'd best click the review button. Otherwise, you are going to be highly disappointed when I bring this to a halt.

Oh, yes. Another warning: I may (or may not) discontinue this story. Reasons being:

1. I'm not too terribly enthusiastic about this story, to tell the truth. I _do _like my idea for the ending, but that brings me to

2. I just realized. People are actually going to read the stuff I put up on this website. Amazing, huh?

So, yeah. I may or may not discontinue this series. If I do, I will put that in the story summary. Either that or I'll stop updating.

* * *

><p>"Ha! Did you see the look on Miss Jean's face?"<p>

"Rosette," Chrono said in a long-suffering voice as Rosette giggled and snorted, "that's not very nice, you know. We really should have told her where we were going."

"Sorry, I'm with Rosette on this one," Joshua said, grinning. "Her expression was priceless! I don't think I'll ever forget what she looked like right then."

Chrono fought to remain straight-faced, but it was only a matter of seconds before a smile began to spread across his face as well. "Okay, it _was _pretty funny, I guess," he admitted. "But it still wasn't nice! We should have at least told her where we were going!"

The twins stared at him pointedly. He smiled nervously. "Yeah, I guess you're right," he said. "That would've ruined the fun of it, wouldn't it have?"

"Of course it would've!" Rosette said indignantly. "The best part of it is watching her when we come back! She gets red-faced and talks to us in this voice that she tries to make menacing, but of course, it never sounds that threatening, 'cause she's too kind-hearted to actually threaten us. In the end, she just sends us to bed without dinner, and then after everyone goes to bed, she creeps into our room with some snacks because she thinks we're hungry."

"It's _hilarious,_" Joshua laughed. "She acts all stern and stuff, then she creeps into our room and whispers, 'sorry, guys - are you hungry? Here, I've brought some snacks'... Every time, I almost burst out laughing."

"Uh...guys." The twins paused and turned to look at Chrono, who was pointing at an alley at his right. "We turn here. Remember?"

They both stared at the alleyway. "Do we?" Rosette asked absentmindedly.

"Yes, we do." Chrono watched them worriedly. Both seemed to be distracted by something - something other than how funny Miss Jean was.

"Oh, right. We do." They both turned onto the street, with Chrono right by their side.

"So..." Rosette grinned. "What're we going to do this time?"

Joshua shrugged. "Explore the building as usual?"

Rosette shook her head. "No, no, no! That's too tiring. I have an idea."

Both Chrono and Joshua sighed and, just as they were expected to, asked, "What is it?"

She turned onto them with bright eyes. "The building is bound to have a basement, right?"

They both nodded yes.

"So then, why don't we just find the basement? I mean, come on! There will probably be vampires, and werewolves, and shadow-creatures..."

"Maybe there will even be more demons!" Joshua added enthusiastically.

Neither of them noticed when Chrono froze at the mention of the basement, and then paled at the further mention of more demons.

"Uh...guys? Maybe you should just-"

"It's a plan, then!" Rosette yelled, completely ignoring Chrono. She and Joshua rushed ahead. After a long pause, Chrono followed.

"Please let me just be paranoid," he muttered under his breath. "No way that Aion..." He shook his head. "Aion is _not _here. Aion is _not _here. _Aion is not here._"

"Come on, Chrono! Hurry up!"

Chrono swallowed the lump in his throat and rushed to catch up with the siblings.

-0-

"Where the heck are those stairs?"

Chrono resisted the urge to pull Rosette and Joshua up to the fifth floor and stay there until Rosette's determination to find the basement faded. _Aion isn't here, _he told himself. _You're just being paranoid._

If only he could make himself believe it.

Joshua walked to the end of the corridor and absentmindedly ran his hand down the wall. Then he frowned.

"Rosette, I think I found something."

She was by his side in a matter of seconds. "What is it?" She bounced up and down. "Where?"

He pointed at the wall. "Part of it feels...weird, somehow. Almost like..."

He turned towards his sister. Her eyes widened, and she said, "There's a hidden door."

She immediately began pressing her hands all over the wall, as though trying to press some secret button. After a few minutes, Joshua joined her.

Chrono watched them do their strange dance for all of four minutes before sighing and saying, "Here, let me help you." He reached forward and pressed the small indentation that he could see, with his enhanced demon's vision, on the wall next to the one with the hidden door. Moments later, a small section of the wall swung open, revealing an opening that an adult would just barely be able to walk through. Being younger and smaller than adults, Rosette, Joshua and Chrono found it easy to walk in.

Inside was pitch-dark. Rosette and Joshua both looked at Chrono pleadingly. He sighed and flipped a switch, and then the tunnel flooded with light. They carefully descended an old, crumbling rock stairway, guided by popping fluorescent lights above their heads.

"I can't believe that the door to the basement was hidden!" Rosette whispered, wide-eyed. "Is there something really valuable hidden down there or something?"

Chrono tried to push the nagging feeling that they should leave into the back of his mind. "Maybe," he said. "We going or not?"

He secretly hoped that she'd choose the latter, but as expected, she shoved her way past him and began walking down the steps. "Of course we're going! Hurry up, guys!"

Chrono and Joshua shared equally frustrated looks, then followed her down the steps.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **I was seriously contemplating making this chapter longer, but I figured that if I did, I'd probably never update this story for another month or so.

What can I say? With the summer vacation comes free time. And with free time comes so many things that seem so much more important than writing fanfictions.

So, yada yada yada, please review and leave criticism - flames welcome, whatever they are - and...thank you for reading my story. Because that means that you actually took the time to read it. Which means that you actually consider it to be interesting enough to waste time on.

Thanks so much, everyone who may or may not be reading this!


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: **Well, well, well. Here we are again. Another chapter of this story, and...what, three more chapters till the contract?

Based on the length of my story chapters lately, I think that's pretty accurate.

So just hold out for a bit longer and then we'll reach the good part. 'Kay?

* * *

><p>"Whoa!"<p>

Chrono reached forward and grabbed Rosette before she could go hurtling down the steps. Again.

Behind him, Joshua sighed. "Honestly, Rosette, can't you keep your balance?" he asked. Again.

Rosette turned and did her best to scowl at him. Again. Just like all her previous attempts, it didn't work too well, what with the narrow stairwell and Chrono in between her and her target.

"Yeah, well, _you _try keeping your balance with next to no light and on tiny, crumbling rock steps," she grumbled.

Chrono sighed and, for what seemed like the tenth time in half as many minutes, asked, "Rosette, do you want me to switch spots with you? I'd be fine with-"

"No!" she snapped. "I'm fine! Let's go!"

She hurried down the steps with much more fervor than was required, considering that she'd slipped twice in the past minute. Chrono and Joshua sighed and followed, Chrono ready to grab her when necessary, and Joshua trying to come up with a snarky comment to say when she fell again.

Thankfully, five more steps later, they reached the bottom of the stairs. The narrow opening revealed a giant room, filled with...

...nothing.

Unless you counted dust, cobwebs and a few, somehow still lit lanterns to be "something". Clearly, Rosette did not.

"What?" she cried. "There's got to be _something _here! Why else would there be a basement here, huh?"

Chrono breathed a sigh of relief. "Er... Rosette, let's just go back up... Before..."

_Before we accidentally wake Aion. If he's here._

"Rosette, you might want to go _into _the room before yelling about how it's empty," Joshua interrupted, rolling his eyes. "Hurry up!"

Silently fuming, she stepped into the room. "There's still nothing here," she called back.

"Wait a minute - Chrono, hurry up! I want to go check it out too."

Chrono found himself shoved out into the open. Joshua stepped out after him.

"Wow," he whispered in awe. "This really is a big room."

It was. It seemed large enough to fit five elephants, two trailer trucks, and twenty giraffes - with room to spare. All across the walls were strange carvings, almost rune-like, that thrummed with some sort of evil energy.

Chrono felt a prickle of fear.

"Guys...let's go...this place isn't-"

Joshua leaned forward and brushed his fingers against the carvings. "Strange," he murmured. "These almost seem like Egyptian hieroglyphs - but that can't be right. This place shouldn't have been around then. Was it?" he asked Chrono.

"What're you talking about?" Rosette demanded in a low voice. "These aren't those Egyptian symbol whatchamacallits! They look more like Japanese! You know - oh, what are they called - kanja and hirawhatevers! What do you think, Chrono?"

He took half a step closer to the wall. That half a step was enough.

"Let's get out of here," he blurted out. "This place is _not safe. _I mean it. Rosette-Joshua-hurry up!"

Rosette stuck her tongue out at him. "Chicken Chrono! This place is completely safe! There are no windows for abductors to come in through-"

"-nothing that can burn up, except the lamps, and how _are _they still lit up-"

"-and there's no heavy machinery in here, not that _I _can see-"

"-no doors or windows or _any _openings other than the stairs-"

"The stairs," Chrono breathed. He whirled around.

They were gone.

"The stairs. The stairs are..." He stared blankly at the stone wall in front of him, covered with the symbols he knew all too well. "The stairs are _gone. _No way. He can't be..."

Rosette pushed him aside and gasped. "Oh. My. God. Joshy, do you know what this means?"

"Sure do!" He grinned.

Chrono stared at them in shock. How could they not be frightened, or worried? They were stuck in the basement, with no way to leave! They were stuck...

...and that made all of them easy prey.

"Secret openings!" Rosette crowed. "How come I didn't think of that earlier? Come on, Joshua, let's go look!"

The two of them ran off to check the walls, leaving Chrono to stare at the place where the stairwell had been just a few minutes earlier.

Hesitantly, he turned away and ran after the twins. If worse came to worse, then he just might be able to dredge up enough energy to save them.

He knew better than to hope that Aion wouldn't come.

-0-

"Nothing over here."

"Nothing here, either," Joshua called back. He ran his fingers along the brick wall, frowning, as he made his way further down the hallway. He'd discovered it, hidden in the shadows of one corner of the room; Rosette had found one on her side. Now they were each going down into the darkness to see where they'd end up.

"Chrono, stop being such a wussy and go up ahead!"

"Ow! Okay, Rosette!"

Joshua grinned. What did Chrono find so freaky about this place? Yeah, it _was _kind of freaky, but it was freaky in a good way! It was a _cool _kind of freaky - what made Chrono so scared?

"He's the demon," Joshua said aloud to himself. "Shouldn't he be scared of less than we are?"

"What was that, Joshua?"

"Just talking to myself," he called back as he made his way further down the corridor. It was amazing how they could still communicate with each other. How far away from each other did they have to be by now? Twenty meters? Fifty? A hundred? But they could still talk to each other, clear as day.

And it also puzzled Joshua that he couldn't find anything. Because he knew, he just somehow _knew _that there was something down there.

The tunnel took an abrupt right turn, and suddenly Joshua found himself staring down a long, lighted corridor. There was what looked like a large set of doors at the end.

"Rosette! Come look what I found!"

No answer.

Oh, well, he thought. Might as well go exploring.

He went up to the doors. They were enormous, thrumming with a power that he could feel in his bones. It was sandwiched by two torches, but he got the feeling that the light wasn't coming from the torches: It was coming from the door.

He ran his fingers over the symbols. "Sinner. Demon. Pandaemonium..." he said aloud. The words came to him as easily as breathing, and he didn't once think about how weird it was that he could read the carvings on the door but not the carvings in the room, which were the exact same as these.

"Horns... Contract... Cast out?" He frowned. "Who was cast out? From where?"

He skimmed his way through the whole text - that was what it had to be, after all - and eventually, the pieces fell together.

A group of demons - Chrono, some guy named Aion, another guy named Shader and somebody named Rizelle, plus a bunch more names he wasn't too sure of - had been cast out of the place where demons lived by this lady called Pandaemonium. They were called Sinners, and they'd lost their horns somehow, and now they had to make contracts with humans to stay alive. And the "Aion" dude was trapped somewhere with his brother. Which demon was his brother?

What if Aion was behind these doors?

Joshua grinned. Another demon? Wouldn't that be fun!

Without even stopping to consider the consequences of his actions, he reached out and pushed open the door.

-0-

"Chrono! Aren't you a demon? You shouldn't be more afraid of the dark than me and Joshua are!"

Chrono grimaced and slapped Rosette's hand away. "I'm not afraid of the dark!"

She grinned, unconvinced. "Uh huh. Totally. Which is why you've been trying to escape from this tunnel ever since we found it."

"I'm not...!" He looked back anxiously. "How long is this tunnel? And where's Joshua? I haven't heard him in a while."

She rolled her eyes. "Jeez, if it'll make you stop worrying..." She stopped and turned around, yelling, "Hey, Joshua! Found anything interesting yet?"

She expected him to answer right away. Instead, there was a long silence.

"Joshua? C'mon, Joshy! What's wrong?"

Chrono began to feel as though something were very, very wrong. "Rosette, let's go check up on him."

"Huh?" She shot him a look. "He's fine! He's probably just playing a prank on us or something!"

"Rosette, _please._"

She looked down into Chrono's desperate, pleading face. Then she looked back to the tiny speck of light.

"Well, I guess it _is _kinda weird that he hasn't answered yet..."

Chrono threw his arms around her and hugged her.

"Hey! Lemme go!" She shoved him off. If it had been any brighter, then Chrono's demon eyes would've been able to detect the slight blush on her cheeks. Fortunately, her back was to the light, so he only saw her faint silhouette. "Come on! Are we going, or not?"

He didn't even need to answer. They both broke off into a run.

-0-

The doors opened up to a large room, nearly as large as the one the tunnels led out of.

It was empty.

Joshua peered in and squinted. It was really dark, so he couldn't see much, but...there _had _to be something there. He just _knew _it.

_"Are you looking for me?"_

Joshua looked up and stared into the bright, blood-red eyes of the owl

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Hahahaha! Ha! Ha! HA! Cliff hanger! Suffer in misery and longing and hopeless anticipation as you eagerly and desperately await for the arrival of the next chapter!

Of course, I _just might _be enticed to update a bit faster if you guys review...

Oh, I know. I'm ashamed. I've stooped so low as to blackmail - or is it bribe? - you guys to get reviews. But I am desperate. Because high school applications are beginning and I, of course, MUST get into all the super-elite programs that require you to have a 105+ average and get 300% on their entrance exam and etc. etc. etc. which means study, study, study for me...

But I promise I'll do my best to update.

(Maybe.)


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: **Yay, another chapter! I haven't really got much to say, so...yeah. Enjoy.

* * *

><p>"Who are you?"<p>

The owl cocked its head to one side. It looked creepily demonic, with its unnatural red eyes blazing in the darkness with some sort of inner light.

_"Don't you know? You were looking for me, weren't you?"_

It was true. Joshua knew instinctively that this owl - or was it a hawk? - was the exact thing that had brought him to this room.

"Yeah, but I don't know who you are."

The bird surveyed him with its glinting red eyes. _"You are sick."_

Joshua flinched. His illness wasn't exactly something he was _proud _of. "Yeah, epilepsy, or Parkinson's, or something like that. I keep forgetting what ridiculous diagnosis they give me."

_"I can heal you."_

Joshua stood there, transfixed, as the bird fluttered down to land on his shoulder. It turned its head to stare into his eyes, and for a moment, he could've sworn he saw it smile.

_"I'll give you a few little...things. They will cure you._"

"Wait, no!" Joshua cut in. "I'm not taking any sort of medicine or pill. I'm _sick _of medicines and pills."

The owl/hawk cocked its head to one side, just as it had earlier. _"It's not a medicine. What is a... Pi-ll? That word is foreign to me. Pi-ll. Pi-ll. Piiiillllll."_

Joshua took a step back. The bird was starting to creep him out.

_"No matter. Do you want to be healed or not?"_

He paused.

_"No more of your sister... Roh-zut. Roh-zet? Ros-ette. She will stop worrying over you and always pretending she's not worried, but secretly watching out for the first signs of one of your bouts of illness._"

The bird fluttered off. Intrigued, Joshua followed.

_"You will be able to play with all the other children at your orphanage. Billy... Matthew... Seila... Kevin..." _It paused, hovering in the air, and almost seemed to grin. _"And your new friend. Chrono."_

Suddenly, it landed in a dark corner of the room. Joshua followed in a trance, tripping over chairs and other bits of furniture, and not caring one whit about it.

_"Yes. Chrono. You and your sister, and that boy, will be able to play together in the garden. And all you need to do for that is put on...these._"

It beckoned Joshua over with its eyes. Joshua went.

On the table that the owl was perched on lay a pair of horns.

"What are these?"

_"The horns of a demon. A demon who was cast out of Hell and Eden. They will cure you of all ailments, the moment you put them on."_

Joshua stared down at the two horns, pale white, and reached out to pick one up. It was surprisingly light and hard, almost like plastic, but the moment he touched it, some strange sort of light began to gather around his hand.

"_It is called Astral Energy. It gives life, and it heals. Hurry up and put it on, right on your ear. Yes, just like that."_

Joshua put the horn right next to his ear, not yet touching. Astral energy. Why did that sound so familiar? For a brief moment, he thought that he could remember something through the fog in his brain that had been growing stronger and hazier since he first met the bird. Something about Chrono, and his horns...

And then it was gone.

He pressed the horn against his head.

-0-

"Hurry up, Rosette!" Chrono yelled. She was beginning to fall behind. He continued to run in desparation. Had these tunnels always been this long?

"Wait up, Chrono!" Rosette yelled, voice hoarse. She came to an abrupt halt, panting hard and nearly doubled over, leaning against the wall for support. She squinted into the darkness ahead. Where was Chrono? He hadn't left her, had he? _God, Joshua, please be okay - something has_ _got to be wrong, the tunnel wasn't this long before, I'm _sure _of it..._

Out of nowhere, she felt somebody grab her hand and pull her forward. "Come on!"

Of course, it was Chrono. She kicked herself mentally - who else would it be?

"We've got to hurry! If Aion is really here..."

"Hold up, who's Aion?" Rosette shouted back somehow, in spite of her shortness of breath. "What's he going to do to my brother?"

Chrono merely tightened his grip on her hand. "You don't want to know," he said grimly. "Now, _run!_"

She ran.

-0-

"Ow... ow... _Aaaaaargh! What the hell is this thing?!"_

"Didn't I tell you?" the man cooed. "They're horns, demon horns. And they will cure you of all ailments."

The boy kneeling on the ground didn't seem to hear. "Aahh... Ow... This hurts..." he moaned. In one clenched fist, he held a strange, bone-light object. His other hand clutched his head, just above his ear. Blood ran through his fingers as he keeled over and screamed again.

"Yes, yes - scream! And as soon as your transformation is done, we'll bring all your friends for the orphanage over to that room of yours that you visit so often! You'll play with them there, forever!" A malicious grin spread across his face. "And we won't forget the guests of honor, either - your sister and your demon friend, _Chrono._"

The boy looked up dazedly, still clutching his head. "My sister...the kids?" His eyes had a vague, unfocused look in them. "They'll be in the room? You promise?"

The man leaned down and stroked the boy's blonde hair. "Of course," he promised. "I'll bring them right over. And then you can come up and play. How do you like that?"

The boy's dull blue eyes fell upon the object in his hand. "Yeah... That'll be nice... We'll be able to play together. Me and Rosette, and all our other friends. Together."

The man straightened up with a smirk. "I won't be a moment."

Then he disappeared, right along with the boy.

-0-

"Chrono! Come on, _you're _the demon with the see-in-the-dark eyesight!" Rosette cried. "Where the heck has Joshua gotten to?"

"Give me a moment," Chrono muttered through clenched teeth. He spread his hands out against the wall. His left hand hit the wall at his side. His right hand kept right on going. "Come on, this way!"

She followed him around the hairpin turn, fully expecting to emerge in another shadowed corridor. Instead, the light nearly blinded her.

"What the heck...?" she breathed, staring wide-eyed at the torches on the walls. They seemed way too sparse and dim to light up the hall as though stagelights were being trained on it, so where was all the light coming from? And then there was the door.

Chrono froze the moment he saw it. Even though Rosette had absolutely no idea what the symbols engraved on it meant, even though she was just a mere human, she could feel the murderous, malicious aura it radiated, as strong as the light.

What had possessed Joshua to go in there?

And where the hell was he now? Because if he was still in that god-forsaken room, then she would eat her shoe. There was no way that he was still in there. Where was he?

"Chrono...where did that Aion guy you were talking about earlier take Joshua?"

He turned and ran back down the corridor to the room that the three of them had emerged in what felt like a century ago. That was all the answer Rosette needed.

She followed.

-0-

_"Wait right here. I'll be right back."_

_"Promise?"_

_"Yes."_

_The boy saw the man's red eyes glint with a somehow malicious intent._

_And then he was gone._

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Meh... Not too terriblyproud of this chapter, but it'll do, I guess. And I suppose I might as well finish the story. What have I got to lose, anyhow? Except for maybe my marks...but whatevs. I hate school anyway.

Random vote: Shorter chapters or longer? Because I personally like longer chapters, but I'm not so sure that it would be smart to suddenly make a huge change eight chapters into the story. Or would it be nine? Argh! I don't know! Eight or nine chapters!

Oh, yeah - just a friendly warning: The plot is going to be drastically different from the manga and anime. And I'm going to make it seem more modern by taking a bunch of things from modern-day movies. So, yeah.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: **Hi. First of all, I'm going to try to fit the rest of this "before Joshua goes crazy because of demon horns" part into this one chapter, so if I succeed, sorry if it takes you three weeks to finish it.

Second of all, if anybody desperately wants to see Mary come into the story somehow, I am very sorry to say that she will probably not be popping up. Not too sure about it yet (I haven't planned that far ahead) but if she does show up, it will only be a little. Sorry about that!

And, third of all, my keyboard is in an uncharacteristically bad mood and refuses to type properly, so if there are a ton of typos in here that I, for some reason, miss, I am extremely sorry.

And now feel free to go ahead and start reading.

* * *

><p>When Chrono and Rosette dashed into the room, the first thing that they noticed was the staircase was back, and without Chrono telling her, Rosette instinctively knew it was not a good thing.<p>

"Chrono? Where... Where did Joshua go?"

"I don't know," Chrono said grimly. He stared at the staircase with a furrowed brow, thinking hard. Suddenly, his eyes widened. "Rosette! Where's the orphanage where you two live?"

Rosette's eyes widened in understanding. "I'll take you there," she said as they dashed up the stairs together, "but why would Joshua go back there? It doesn't make any sense!"

"Who knows?" Chrono muttered. "It just seems like what Aion would do. Ripping family apart..."

He fell silent.

"Ripping family apart? What do you mean?"

"I don't want to talk about it. Hurry!" he yelled, changing the topic. "We've got to get there before Aion does!"

"Who _is_ this 'Aion' person?" Rosette complained. She sped up all the same. "How do you two know each other, anyway? And-"

"Later!" They dashed out of the building and skidded to a halt, both staring at the dark night sky above them, with faint dots of light that were either stars, airplanes, or street lights, far off in the distance.

Something was wrong.

"We... We couldn't have been down there for over ten hours...could we?" Rosette whispered, staring wide-eyed at the sky above her. It couldn't be possible - they'd only been down there for ten minutes, max! And yet...

The moon had come out.

Night had fallen.

"Damn Aion!" Chrono yelled, slamming his fist against the side of the building. "He probably put a spell on the basement so that time passes differently there!"

Rosette took a step back and brought her hands, trembling, up to her chest. She'd never seen Chrono angry before. He was usually passive, with a slight smile on his face (or sometimes a wince, when she was torturing him, but that was beside the point) and ready to laugh. Now, his eyes were glowing with a demonic fire, and for the first time, she could see the demon in him.

"Chrono... Is there anything I can do to help?"

He turned to her with a look of surprise on his face as she continued. "I know that I'm just a human, but you're a demon, and if I can do something to help you stop this Aion person... Please, just tell me what it is! I'll do it if it can help save Joshua!"

He gritted his teeth. "No - there's nothing you can do," he lied. He did know about how demons could get astral energy by taking a human's life, but... "Come on, Rosette," he finally said. "We've got to go get Joshua."

Before she could say anything in response, he grabbed her arm and jumped up. She shrieked and squeezed her eyes shut. It didn't make sense - they were going up way higher than they should be, even with a demon's jumping power...

Then she felt Chrono lift her up and hold her in his arms.

"It's okay, Rosette," she heard him whisper into her ear. "I'm just getting us to Joshua faster. You have to show me where the orphanage is."

His voice was different somehow. Deeper... More adult. She opened her eyes and stared at him.

He'd changed.

He no longer looked like the young kid that she'd spent all that time with. He looked older, _much_ older, with a bony, blade-like tail where his braid usually was, and he had strange markings on his face, and...

She felt herself blush, in spite of the situation they were in. He was half-naked! She could see his chest, and his stomach, and... And...

"Rosette!" he hissed. "Where's the orphanage?"

She snapped her head back up. "Oh!" She surveyed the streets below her. As always, they were busy, with cars weaving their way through the traffic, and people jogging along on the sidewalk. She looked for some sort of landmark. That house looked familiar - and that apartment building there, too...

"Turn toward that skyscraper over there!" She pointed to a tall building far in the distance, and Chrono blinked.

"A skycraper? What's a skyscraper?"

She huffed. "Chrono! You...! Argh! It's that tall building over there!"

He gave her a funny look, but switched his trajectory nonetheless. "That's a building? I thought it was a dead tree or something."

"Ch-ro-no!" she whined. "You're so clueless! Joshua and I are going to have to...teach...you..."

She fell silent. Joshua wasn't here - Joshua was off with some evil demon, who, according to Chrono, was called "Aion" and enjoyed torturing people.

_Joshua...please be okay..._

-0-o-0-o-0-

"M-Miss Jean... I'm back..."

"Joshua!" she cried, running down the hall as fast as she could. "Joshua, are you okay?"

She halted just out of arm's reach of him. For some reason, she felt like there was some sort of ominous aura around him, and she was sure that if she went any closer, it wouldn't end up well.

Then she saw the thing he held.

"Joshua..." She leaned over and squinted at the glowing white object in the boy's hand. If only she hadn't left her glasses in her room! Ah, well - she'd just ask him. "Joshua, what is that-?"

"Don't touch it!" he yelled, and Miss Jean cowered. What had happened to him? He used to be such a sweet, innocent little boy. Now, it seemed as though he were possessed by a demon. Was it his illness? Had it gotten worse?

"Oh, it's all about my epilepsy, isn't it," Joshua said angrily. "Look, Joshua's having a seizure again! Oh no, Joshua's sick again, right in the middle of our game! Sick, sick, sick - that's all you think about when you see me!"

"No, that's not true! My dear boy, you..." She couldn't think of anything to say. His horrible disease was a big part of who he was, and she wished that it wasn't, but-

"Miss Jean?" A door creaked open, and a young girl with mussy brown hair tied into two braid poked her head into the hallway. "What's up? I heard you mention Joshua."

Miss Jean turned around, grateful for the distraction. "Ah - yes! Seila, look, Joshua is back! Isn't that-"

The girl blinked and rubbed her eyes. "He's not having another seizure, is he?"

All her thoughts came rushing into Joshua's brain. _Geez, not another one - such a pain - why does he always bother us with those?_

"That's... That's not nice, Seila." Joshua looked up into Seila's eyes. "I didn't _ask_ to have epilepsy. You're so mean."

Before he even knew what he was doing, he held his hand up to her. _If I can just get her to stop thinking those things,_ he thought, _maybe I won't have to listen to anyone say that about me anymore._

He giggled. Miss Jean took a step back. "Joshua, what...?"

"Be careful, Miss Jean," he said in a high, sing-song voice. "I don't want to hurt you."

The last thing she remembered seeing was a blinding white light.

And then, nothing.

-0-o-0-o-0-

Rosette winced and held her hand up to cover her eyes. There was a bright light coming from the direction of the orphanage - no_,_ _from_ the orphanage.

"Chrono!" She pointed at the light with her free hand. "I think Joshua's there!"

Chrono growled and sped up. "Dammit! We're too late!"

In the few minutes it took them to reach the orphanage, there were several more blinding flashes of light, the last one being a vivid red. Even before they landed, Chrono knew that Aion had already gotten away.

"Miss Jean!" Rosette screamed. As soon as they landed, she rolled out of Chrono's arms and dashed inside. "Miss Jean - Chrono, come in! You're going to get hit by a car!"

"They're not in there, Rosette," Chrono yelled. "Aion has probably taken them away."

Rosette didn't listen. She dashed through the orphanage. "Miss Jean! Matthew! Seila! Are any of you here?"

"Rosette, we've got to go back!"

"But..." She ran upstairs. Maybe they were up there. "They can't all just be _gone_. That's not possible! How would they leave? _Why_ would they leave?"

"Come on, Rosette! We've got to go help them! You know where they are - they'll be at the building. You have to show me how to get there - I don't know the way by heart."

She ducked her head into one last room. Just like the rest, it was empty. There was no doubt about it anymore: They were all gone.

She ran back down the stairs and threw her hands around Chrono's neck. "Okay. Hurry - we've got to help Joshua!"

-0-o-0-o-0-

"Aion... Where's my sister? Where's Rosette?"

_Shhh, little boy. Your sister will be here soon._

"Why... Why isn't anyone moving? Why are they all so quiet..."

_It's okay. You did this, remember? You did it to block out the voices._

"But...they're so..."

_Shhh. Quiet, Joshua. Your sister will be here soon. Why don't you put that horn on - and the other one, too, while you're at it?_

"I... I don't wanna... If I do, something really bad will happen."

_Like what?_

"Like... Chrono will be in trouble..."

_No, he won't. What're you talking about?_

"Well, these are Chrono's horns, and... If he can't get any energy because I have them, won't he die?"

_No, he won't. Don't you want to live without disease forever? Put them both on, and I can guarantee that you'll be happy._

"But..."

_Come on now. Hurry up._

"Can't I wait till my sister comes?"

_Fine. But don't forget - you have to put _both_ of them on. Got it?_

"Uh-huh. I know, Aion. I know."

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Okay, that's all for now. Writer's block - you gotta hate it. Rrrgghhhh! I can't figure out what the heck happens in the encounter! I mean, I know what happens at the _end_ of it - Remington and the others show up, _duh_ - but how? I know what'll happen with the whole issue about the horns, but I can't have Chrono and Rosette arrive and then randomly have Joshua appear and say, "Hey, Chrono, here's your horn" and... Spoilers!

Honestly though. Why must writing be this hard?


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N:** Okay, I've mostly figured it out. Here's something that I want to ask all of you, though, before I forget:

Should Satella a famous singer celebrity, or should Azmaria? Because this is present-day, after all. I was thinking that Satella could be either a jewelry or clothing designer, and Azmaria could be a great kid/teen idol who just started out and has an amazing voice and whatnot... Or she's a kid model... And then I have to think about the Magdalene order - should they be private detectives, a religious church, a police force, an organization like the red cross, etc... So much to do, so little time.

Moving on. Here's chapter ten - I've got to say, I'm kind of embarrassed that it took so long to get to this big part... Man, I've been wasting my time with that intro!

* * *

><p>"Joshua!"<p>

Rosette jumped out of Chrono's arms and dashed toward the entrance. The moment she stepped foot inside, she could tell that something was horribly wrong.

Everything was so _white._

She stopped in her tracks and stared around her, then furiously rubbed her eyes to make sure that it wasn't a problem with her vision. It wasn't. The entire inside of the building had a thin, translucent film of white over it, so thin it was almost imperceptible yet impossible to ignore. Not only that, but it all looked so...still. Even though seeing the doors open and close on their own would've been unrealistic, this state of immobility was unnatural.

She gritted her teeth and dashed down the hallway, then made a sharp turn and began to climb the stairs, taking them two steps at a time. Behind her, she heard Chrono's loud footsteps, and then the flapping of his wings as he took to the air to catch up with her. When she reached the seventh floor, she wasn't even breathing hard - dimly, she realized that the only reason she could still run was because of the adrenaline coursing through her body, but she pushed that thought aside. She grabbed the door hand and, grunting, pulled it open. Even though the hinges had been greased a while ago, the door was still heavy.

As soon as it was open wide enough to go inside, she dashed in. Chrono followed close behind.

The same unnatural whiteness had seized this room, too, but something was different here. She squinted at the immobile white shapes inside the dense forest, which had never been there before. Something about their shapes.. Something about them was wrong. Even more wrong than the whiteness, even more than the stillness. She ran over to them, feeling her lungs begin to burn with the extertion.

The first shape she came across drained all the color from her cheeks.

_Miss Jean._

She was standing in her nightgown, slightly hunched over, with a hand over her eyes as though blocking a bright light. Behind her was Seila, with one foot behind her and wide eyes, arms extended outward to stop whatever menace she'd seen when she was frozen. Through the fog of horror and disbelief clouding her mind, Rosette recognized all the others: Rebecca. Annie. Hanse. Even Billy was frozen, although it was clear he'd put up a bit of a fight before whatever had happened to all the others had happened to him as well.

"S...Sis?"

Rosette whirled around. That voice - Joshua's voice. Somehow, Chrono had gotten to her side. When had that happened? She shook her head. _Focus, Rosette, focus._ Her brother... Something had been weird about her brother's voice.

Joshua stood on the hill, facing her. Blood coursed down the side of his face. The bone white horn on his ear was soaked crimson, and in his hands, he held the horn's twin.

"Sis... You're back." Joshua's face twisted into a strained and joyless smile. "I'm sorry if you don't like what I did to Miss Jean and all the others, but they were being so loud. They're much quieter now, aren't they? You're being pretty quiet, too. That's a good thing. Chrono, too. I like you guys. You're a lot better than _them._"

Rosette shivered. "What's wrong, Joshy?" she pleaded. "What happened to you? You're...different."

Joshua's face hardened. "Not you too, Rosette. You're not going to start thinking about my disease too, are you?"

"Stop it, Joshua!"

Joshua tilted his head to one side, eyes narrowed. "Chrono...? You, too?" Suddenly, he winced and brought a hand up to the horn on his head. "No..." he gritted out. "No... I don't want the other one... Stop it, Aion!"

Chrono startled. "Aion? Where's Aion?"

_Tsk tsk tsk. Chrono, that isn't a very nice way to greet your brother that you haven't seen in decades, is it?_ The red-eyed hawk fluttered down from somewhere up above, appearing as a dark blur before solidifying and settling on Joshua's shoulder. _Ignoring me isn't very nice._

Chrono gritted his teeth. "Aion, what have you done to Joshua?"

_Oh, nothing much._ The hawk twisted its head to stare at Rosette. Instinctively, Chrono stepped forward and pushed Rosette behind him. She stumbled backward. Those eyes... It felt like those eyes were boring holes into her skull, simply by looking at her. She looked down and stepped behind Chrono's body, but the feeling didn't disappear.

_In fact, I think that I might take the girl, too. She reminds me an awful lot of Magdalene somehow..._

"No!" Joshua shouted. "Don't do anything to my sister!"

If the hawk had a mouth, it would've been twisted in a cruel grin. _Oh, I won't, Joshua. Remember, I promised to leave both of them alone - as long as you put on both _

"D-Don't do it, Joshy." Rosette forced the words out past her trembling lips, but couldn't make her voice any louder than a whisper. "D-Don't trust Aion. P-P-Please..."

Chrono reached behind him and squeezed her hand comfortingly. "Dont' worry," he murmured. "I won't let him."

Rosette relaxed. Somehow, having her small, childish hands enveloped in Chrono's larger one gave her a sense of relief. She quickly turned her attention back to Joshua, though, as he lifted the horn in his hand.

"This?" He stared at it contemptuously. Just like the one he wore, it was a sickly white, and the hand that held it glowed with a soft white light. "I don't need another one. The one I already have is enough."

With that, he threw the horn onto the ground with all his might.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Goddammit. SO MANY FRIGGIN' PLOT HOLES. What the HELL was I thinking when I wrote that last chapter? No idea. Frigging hell. From now on, I'm rereading my last few chapters before I write my next chapters. Just to make sure I don't make any mistakes.

GODDAMMIT. I AM SO ANNOYED.

I don't really want to end on that negative note, so I'll say something that'll make you guys (probably) annoyed too. REVIEW. RATE. CRITICIZE. And stuff. What did one author do? Ah, right. "If you leave a comment, I'll give you a cookie!"


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N:** Sorry sorry SORRY for always updating my fanfics late. I swear that it's not intentional. A couple times every week, I open up all the fanfiction chapters I should be updating and just stare at the screen for five minutes straight because I have no idea how to start it. I'M SO SORRY. IT'S LIKE WRITER'S BLOCK BUT IT'S NOT. Once I get into the story? Bam. Chapter, chapter, chapter, until my parents force me to get off - and then even though I know what comes next, the next time I'm sitting at the computer, nothing comes out.

I'M SO SORRY. SO VERY VERY SORRY.

But here's another chapter for all of you.

* * *

><p>Chrono stiffened and stared at the fragments of horn - <em>his<em> horn - lying on the ground. Joshua stared down at them, void of all emotion. After a brief, stunned silence, Aion began to laugh.

_Well done, boy!_ He chuckled. _I would've preferred you wear it, but it's equally unaccessible this way. In fact, I think this might be even _more_ effective than my original plan. You're quite the clever one. I'm glad I chose you to join my team._

Rosette gave a cry of despair. She released Chrono's hand and dashed forward to Joshua's feet, where she fell to her knees and began to desperately gather the already crumbling fragments of bone.

"No, Rosette!" Chrono shouted, just a few seconds too late. "Don't touch them!"

She gathered the final fragment into her cupped hands and turned to him with a tear-stained face. "But... It's your horn, Chrono. I can't just..."

She froze. She could feel those eyes, those evil, cruel, wicked red eyes, boring into the back of her skull. Slowly, unwillingly, but knowing that horrible things would happen if she didn't, she turned her head to look up at Aion.

_Well, well, well,_ he purred. His eyes glinted with satisfaction, and Rosette felt a shiver go down her spine. _The prey delivers itself straight to the predator's nest. How useful._

In the blink of an eye, Chrono appeared next to her. He wrapped his arms around her protectively as she shivered and glared up at his brother. "Leave her alone, Aion!" he snarled. "She hasn't done anything!"

_Quite to the contrary, dear brother. She's befriended you. I'd think that's reason enough to take her under my wing._

"Don't... Don't touch my sis," Joshua muttered. His eyes flashed with anger for a brief moment, but then he blinked, and the apathy returned. "Don't touch my sister, Aion. She's important to me."

_Oh, I won't need to touch her. She's already doomed._

Chrono picked her up and dashed backward, faster than was humanly possible, and set her down on the ground, back in the forest's safety. "Rosette," he murmured, grabbing her hands and forcing them open. "Rosette, are you okay?"

She swallowed and stared down at her hands. "C-Chrono, what's that light?"

He didn't even look down. "It's just astral energy. It's all right, it should be harmless." _I think,_ he mentally added.

"But..." She flexed her fingers, ever so slightly. "It feels weird. It's like it's trying to do something to my hands."

_I told you she was doomed._

"Aion..." Joshua looked over at the bird. "My sister... Is my sister going to be okay?"

_Of course she will, Joshua,_ Aion purred. _She'll just change a bit, that's all. She'll need to change anyway, if you want to make her come with_ us.

"But..." Joshua frowned in deep thought. "Chrono... Chrono doesn't like you. Chrono won't be able to come."

_It's all right. Chrono's time is up, anyway._

"Chrono!" Rosette's voice rose hysterically. "Chrono! What's happening? Your horns are disappearing!"

She held her hands out, panicked. The fragments of horn she'd gathered were all beginning to sink into her skin, leaving no sign of ever having been there. The glow from the astral energy remained, though - if anything, it intensified.

_You know that astral energy is poison to humans, don't you, dear brother?_ Aion murmured. _Except for humans like the one I've got here. He's an Apostle - he should be resistant to its effects._

Joshua absentmindedly reached up and petted Aion on the head. Aion stiffened a little from the gesture. "Don't say that, Aion," he mumbled. "You're being mean to my sister."

_Oh, I'm sooo sorry, Joshua._ If Joshua detected the sarcasm in Aion's voice, he didn't show it. _I promise I'll stop being mean to her once she joins us._ If_ she joins us. She might not be able to. After all...who knows what astral energy does to humans?__  
><em>

Chrono gritted his teeth and grabbed Rosette's hands. All at once, she felt the tingling feeling in her hands disappear. The astral energy was being redirected - but where?

_Clever._ Aion sounded impressed. _Not quite clever enough, though. All I have to do is make you let go._

Joshua nodded and, in an emotionless voice, said, "Why don't you let go of big sis, Chrono? She'll be happy with us."

He reached out a hand. "If you don't let her be happy, I'll-"

"_Put your hands up and back away slowly!_"

Rosette twisted around and stared at the double-doorway. She felt a wave of relief wash over her: Someone was here. Someone was here to help.

Not anyone she knew, but at least there was help. Whoever it was, they weren't the police. Instead of the familiar black uniform, laden belt, and round, short-billed cap, the women were wearing...nun's uniforms?

The woman in the middle pulled back a lever on her gun, lifted her bullhorn, and shouted into it, "_Sir with the demon horn around your heck! Put both of you hands beside your head and step back!"_

Joshua slowly obeyed. Aion waiting until Joshua was five paces back before lifting his wings.

"_Same goes for the demon bird! If you so much as twitch a feather, we'll blast a hole in your human companion!_"

Aion ruffled his feathers angrily, but brought his wings back to his sides.

_"The girl and- The girl and her...companion, please come to the__ doorway."_

Chrono stood and pulled a shocked Rosette up with him.

_Bye, Chrono._ Aion's voice was barely more than a whisper. _I'll be seeing you again. Soon._

"_I would ask that you don't-_"

The woman's words were stopped by a gasp and a loud, clanging sound as she dropped her horn and rifle. Chrono whirled around, but it was too late.

They were gone.

Rosette bit down on her lip, forcing down a sob. "We... We'll be able to meet each other again, won't we?"

"Of course you will," Chrono whispered. He tugged on her hands. "Come on, I think those nuns will be able to help you."

He pulled her to the three nuns, who quickly brought them down the stairs and into a white van. "Sit tight," the one who'd held the bullhorn said. "We'll bring you to Elder. He should do something about..." She waved at Rosette's hand, still glistening with astral energy, although it was being absorbed by Chrono instead of Rosette. "About that."

Rosette sat on the floor of the van and leaned against the wall, slightly dazed. "Did... Did Joshua really just...?"

Chrono sat beside her. "Rosette, just... Get some rest. It'll be fine."

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** That would be the most sucky chapter I've ever written, except for my overly fluffy ones. Well, really, I just forced myself to finish it because - hey! I've been on an updating streak. I've updated an average of one chapter a day since I came home from my summer camp, and I decided I might as well finish this one since I've been postponing it for so long, so...yeah.

Not too sure how I'm going to fill up all the other time, but it's probably going to (basically) be a rewritten version of the actual series, except with a few details changed. Which means I'm going to have to reread it, but that's okay, because it's a pretty good manga anyways.

Aaanyways, I updated! Yay! I (kind of) overcame my writer's block for this fanfic!


	12. Chapter 12

"Rosette, wake up. Come on, we're here."

Rosette felt someone shaking her by the shoulders, and blearily opened her eyes. "Muh...? What just..."

Her eyes widened and she bolted upright.

"Joshua! What happened to Joshua? Where did Aion go?" Her hand balled into a fist, and she felt the corners of her mouth rise in a snarl. "I'm going to kill that stupid - stupid owl! Or hawk! Or whatever he is! How _dare_ he hurt my little brother like that!"

"Ooh, the little miss has _fire!_"

She spun around, smacking Chrono in the face with her braids, and glared at the old man standing in front of her. He grinned at her, showing a mouthful of shockingly white teeth. He pulled his hands out of the pockets of his white lab coat and advanced. "Now, let me take a look at your..."

His eyes were hidden behind his odd goggles. As he came closer and closer, hands outstretched, Rosette shrieked and kicked him in the nose.

"Get away from me, you creep!" she shouted, scooting backward and clinging to Chrono for comfort. "Who the heck are you anyway?"

"I was just checking to see if the focus is still working!" he protested, clutching his red nose. "No need to get your panties in a twist."

"Although I'm guessing that you were _thinking_ about groping her. Am I right, Elder?"

The old man - "Elder" was a fitting name - turned and managed a slight, nervous grin. "Of course not, Sister Kate! Not with a little girl."

The nun, who'd just appeared within Rosette's field of vision, gave the old man a withering glare, then turned to Rosette. "I trust you're fine? Is Elder's device-"

"It's a _focus_," he grumbled.

"-working?"

Rosette blinked. "Huh? What're you talking about?"

Chrono answered for her. "Yeah, it is." He lifted her hands and showed them to Sister Kate. "See? All of the astral energy is being redirected."

Rosette turned to him, nose scrunched up in confusion. "What? What're you guys talking about?" She stared at her hands for a while. Then her eyes widened. "The astral energy!" she cried. "Where'd it go? Chrono, your horns! Did they come out?"

One quick look at his ears and his slight smile of disappointment answered her question: No, they hadn't.

Elder stepped forward and cleared his throat. "If you'll allow me to explain, little missy-"

"My name's Rosette," she said, pouting. Elder grinned.

"All right then. _Rosette_. To put it bluntly, your body absorbed the horns, and they're probably not going to come out. Ever." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Of course, there's the matter of _how_ your body absorbed them, but that can be accredited to your relationship to an Apostle, and the fact that you've spent lots of time with Chrono."

Rosette growled and buried her head in her arms. "I don't get it!" she yelled. "You're making my head hurt!"

Chrono sighed. "What Elder means is that, since we spent a lot of time together, my horn might've mistaken you for me, so it willingly assimilated with your body. The reason your body didn't reject it was because you're related to Joshua, who has angelic powers."

"Well, why didn't he just say that in the first place?"

Sister Kate sighed. "Why don't the three of you continue this conversation inside?"

"No!" Rosette looked up and pouted. "I want to know _now!_"

Elder's grin grew wider. "Ah, feisty! I wonder what you'll be like when you grow older."

Sister Kate grabbed Elder's ear and twisted it.

"_Ow!_"

"Please don't say things like that," she said in between Elder's cries of pain. She turned her wrist a little further. "I'd hate for her to leave out of fear of being molested."

She released him and stepped away. He rubbed his ear reproachfully and turned back to Rosette. "So, where were we?" He winced and massaged his ear. "Ah, yes! The horn. The horn's main function is to attract astral energy, which is to be absorbed by its owner. Normally, demon horns are only worn by demons, so humans don't have to worry about astral energy. This is a rather unusual case. We have no idea what will happen to your body if it absorbs too much astral energy, but judging by the state of your hands, we don't want to find out."

"What's wrong with my hands?" Rosette demanded. "They feel perfectly fine!"

Elder crossed his arms. "That's the problem right there, missy. They're a bit _too_ perfect. One of the ladies in the ambulance accidentally poured a mildly acidic solution on your arm. From your wrist up, your arm reddened. Your hands didn't change."

Rosette held out her arms and frowned. "But I don't see any redness now."

"That's because they put on a lotion." Chrono shrugged when she turned to him. "You've been asleep for a while now."

"So that's why we can't let you absorb any more astral energy!" Elder pointed to her chest. "That's what that little beauty's for. It's a focus and a containment device. Any astral energy that's coming for your hands feels it, and runs there instead, where it's stored unless the focus is opened."

Rosette grabbed the item he was pointing to and stared at it. It was surprisingly bulky, and she mentally berated herself for not noticing it sooner. It was a watch, about the size of her palm, with a large, round piece of metal sticking out of its top, and two wire clasps on its sides. Curious, she tugged at them. Chrono's hand clapped down on hers.

"That's how you open it," he muttered. "Don't do that unless you're in an emergency."

Elder babbled on. "And when the focus is opened, the astral energy that it's storing will rush toward the horns, which are inside your hands. They will continue to attract more astral energy, so if you opened the focus long enough, your entire body would eventually absorb astral energy, and be transformed! Of course, you could probably consciously direct that energy wherever you want, so long as you open the focus, but it would travel through your body and affect you anyways. For example, if your demon friend here was dying, you could open it and give him some energy to consume. If you did that, you'd be putting yourself at risk, but-"

"But you don't need to," Chrono interrupted, "because I've already absorbed enough astral energy to keep me going for at least a few more years."

Rosette looked up at him. "Say, Chrono, why are you in your kid form again?"

Elder beat him to the answer. "Because in spite of all his talk about being able to survive a few years, he wouldn't make it very long in his true form!" Elder grinned. "See, demons have two forms: Their true form, and their energy-conserving forms. Their true forms require more astral energy, so he's in his energy-conserving form so that he doesn't use up all that he has." His face lit up as he added, "And did you know, all demons were born with horns to-"

"You're getting off-topic!" Sister Kate snapped. "If you're done telling her about the focus, then leave! We still have questions we'd like to ask her."

"Who's _we?_" Rosette asked. Sister Kate ignored her question.

"Come on, Rosette," she said, holding out a hand to help Rosette down from the back of the ambulance. "I'm going to take you inside, and then the three of us can chat together."

Rosette stared at her hand suspiciously. When she didn't make any motion to accept it, Chrono gave her a slight shove, and she quickly clambered over and jumped down.

"I don't need your help!" she snapped. "Where are we going?"

Chrono jumped out and ran up beside her. "It's that building over there." He pointed to the side, and she turned.

_Magdalene Organization._

"What's the Magdalene Organization?" she asked. Chrono's answer was a shrug. Sister Kate didn't respond.

"This way," she said, walking to the door. Rosette and Chrono followed.

A few minutes later, they were seated on a pine-green couch. Rosette fiddled with her new focus and Chrono sat patiently as they waited for Sister Kate to come back.

"Hey, Chrono."

She was so quiet that he almost thought he'd imagined it. It was only when he turned and found himself staring into her eyes that he realized she'd spoken. "What is it, Rosette?"

"Will... Will Aion do anything to Joshua?"

Chrono subconsciously clenched his fists. _Would _Aion do anything? Even after spending so much time with him, Chrono wasn't sure. "I don't think he will," he finally said. "It depends on why he took him, but I think that Joshua will be fine."

Rosette smiled faintly and looked down at the watch. "Okay."

Both of them flinched when, seconds later, the door creaked open. "Right this way," they heard Sister Kate say softly. They heard loud, heavy steps, and turned to face her and the newcomer.

The man smiled at them both, and Rosette felt herself relax. He gave off a sense of calm and relaxation that warmed her up. It wasn't only his aura, it was also his looks: He shared her and Joshua's golden hair and light blue eyes.

"My name is Ewan Remington," he said, sitting down, "and this is Sister Kate, as I'm sure the two of you know. People call me Father Remington. I'm going to get straight to the point here." He folded his hands in his lap and stared straight into Rosette's eyes. "I want you to join the Magdalene Organization. We're a private, non-profit organization, whose purpose is to eradicate demons."

Rosette stiffened and inched closer to Chrono. "You kill demons?"

Remington smiled reassuringly. "Only the bad ones. We won't touch Chrono, as long as he doesn't harm any humans. I heard that your brother was taken as well." He leaned over and patted Rosette comfortingly. "We can help you retrieve him," he said. "That's our job."

"Can you really?"

Chrono frowned and asked, "Why do you want us?"

"You two are a special case. Rosette, you can absorb astral energy, and Chrono, you're the only non-violent demon we've heard of. You may possibly the only non-violent demon in the _world._ And you've lost your horns. We were thinking that you two could work as a team: You"-he nodded toward Rosette-"would give Chrono the energy he needs, and _you_"-he nodded to Chrono-"would destroy the demons. What do you two say?"

Rosette glared at his outstretched hand. Chrono sighed, but followed her example.

Sister Kate frowned, deep furrows forming in the space between her eyebrows. "All expenses would be paid for," she said. "You would receive your own transportation, uniform, food-" Rosette perked up a bit at the sign of food. "-and anything else that you might need, so long as it's reasonable. Until you're qualified for independent missions, you would even have entertainment, such as video games, books, and computers that you could share with the other young trainees."

Rosette's wide eyes didn't go unnoticed by the two adults. Neither did Chrono's confusion. Father Remington smiled. "Of course, you would get your own cell phones, as well." He paused, thought for a moment, and then rammed in the finishing blow.

"You would also learn how to use guns."

Rosette beamed and reached forward, grabbing Remington's hand with both of hers and shaking it vigorously. "It's a deal!" she exclaimed. "Okay! When does training start?"

"You'll have a while to adjust to life in the organization. After a week, you'll begin your lessons."

Sister Kate walked to the door. "Follow me, you two. I'll show you where you're staying."

As they got up and followed her into the hall, Chrono leaned over and whispered in Rosette's ear, "What are 'video games'? And 'computers'? And 'cell phones'?"

Rosette grinned and clapped him on the back, ignoring his question. "Chrono, this is going to be fun!"

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Nnrgh... Explaining...so...exhausting...

I hate the explaining parts of stories. I can't write them. It all turns out boring and long and dull and repetitive and friggin' _exhausting._

Merp... At least it's over now... Yes, I totally did just write a two-thousand-word chapter just to get it all over with.

The next chapter will be after the time lapse! It may even include brief descriptions (_brief_ because I have no idea how to write it; plus, the training's for another fanfic I'm gonna write) of Rosette's training. So, see ya then!


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